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“Hard to Say, Hard to Understand, Hard to Live”: Possible Associations between Neurologic Language Impairments and Suicide Risk

In clinical practice, patients with language impairments often exhibit suicidal ideation (SI) and suicidal behavior (SB, covering the entire range from suicide attempts, SA, to completed suicides). However, only few studies exist regarding this subject. We conducted a mini-review on the possible ass...

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Autores principales: Costanza, Alessandra, Amerio, Andrea, Aguglia, Andrea, Magnani, Luca, Serafini, Gianluca, Amore, Mario, Merli, Roberto, Ambrosetti, Julia, Bondolfi, Guido, Marzano, Lisa, Berardelli, Isabella
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8699610/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34942896
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/brainsci11121594
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author Costanza, Alessandra
Amerio, Andrea
Aguglia, Andrea
Magnani, Luca
Serafini, Gianluca
Amore, Mario
Merli, Roberto
Ambrosetti, Julia
Bondolfi, Guido
Marzano, Lisa
Berardelli, Isabella
author_facet Costanza, Alessandra
Amerio, Andrea
Aguglia, Andrea
Magnani, Luca
Serafini, Gianluca
Amore, Mario
Merli, Roberto
Ambrosetti, Julia
Bondolfi, Guido
Marzano, Lisa
Berardelli, Isabella
author_sort Costanza, Alessandra
collection PubMed
description In clinical practice, patients with language impairments often exhibit suicidal ideation (SI) and suicidal behavior (SB, covering the entire range from suicide attempts, SA, to completed suicides). However, only few studies exist regarding this subject. We conducted a mini-review on the possible associations between neurologic language impairment (on the motor, comprehension, and semantic sides) and SI/SB. Based on the literature review, we hypothesized that language impairments exacerbate psychiatric comorbidities, which, in turn, aggravate language impairments. Patients trapped in this vicious cycle can develop SI/SB. The so-called “affective prosody” provides some relevant insights concerning the interaction between the different language levels and the world of emotions. This hypothesis is illustrated in a clinical presentation, consisting of the case of a 74-year old woman who was admitted to a psychiatric emergency department (ED) after a failed SA. Having suffered an ischemic stroke two years earlier, she suffered from incomplete Broca’s aphasia and dysprosody. She also presented with generalized anxiety and depressive symptoms. We observed that her language impairments were both aggravated by the exacerbations of her anxiety and depressive symptoms. In this patient, who had deficits on the motor side, these exacerbations were triggered by her inability to express herself, her emotional status, and suffering. SI was fluctuant, and—one year after the SA—she completed suicide. Further studies are needed to ascertain possible reciprocal and interacting associations between language impairments, psychiatric comorbidities, and SI/SB. They could enable clinicians to better understand their patient’s specific suffering, as brought on by language impairment, and contribute to the refining of suicide risk detection in this sub-group of affected patients.
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spelling pubmed-86996102021-12-24 “Hard to Say, Hard to Understand, Hard to Live”: Possible Associations between Neurologic Language Impairments and Suicide Risk Costanza, Alessandra Amerio, Andrea Aguglia, Andrea Magnani, Luca Serafini, Gianluca Amore, Mario Merli, Roberto Ambrosetti, Julia Bondolfi, Guido Marzano, Lisa Berardelli, Isabella Brain Sci Case Report In clinical practice, patients with language impairments often exhibit suicidal ideation (SI) and suicidal behavior (SB, covering the entire range from suicide attempts, SA, to completed suicides). However, only few studies exist regarding this subject. We conducted a mini-review on the possible associations between neurologic language impairment (on the motor, comprehension, and semantic sides) and SI/SB. Based on the literature review, we hypothesized that language impairments exacerbate psychiatric comorbidities, which, in turn, aggravate language impairments. Patients trapped in this vicious cycle can develop SI/SB. The so-called “affective prosody” provides some relevant insights concerning the interaction between the different language levels and the world of emotions. This hypothesis is illustrated in a clinical presentation, consisting of the case of a 74-year old woman who was admitted to a psychiatric emergency department (ED) after a failed SA. Having suffered an ischemic stroke two years earlier, she suffered from incomplete Broca’s aphasia and dysprosody. She also presented with generalized anxiety and depressive symptoms. We observed that her language impairments were both aggravated by the exacerbations of her anxiety and depressive symptoms. In this patient, who had deficits on the motor side, these exacerbations were triggered by her inability to express herself, her emotional status, and suffering. SI was fluctuant, and—one year after the SA—she completed suicide. Further studies are needed to ascertain possible reciprocal and interacting associations between language impairments, psychiatric comorbidities, and SI/SB. They could enable clinicians to better understand their patient’s specific suffering, as brought on by language impairment, and contribute to the refining of suicide risk detection in this sub-group of affected patients. MDPI 2021-11-30 /pmc/articles/PMC8699610/ /pubmed/34942896 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/brainsci11121594 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Case Report
Costanza, Alessandra
Amerio, Andrea
Aguglia, Andrea
Magnani, Luca
Serafini, Gianluca
Amore, Mario
Merli, Roberto
Ambrosetti, Julia
Bondolfi, Guido
Marzano, Lisa
Berardelli, Isabella
“Hard to Say, Hard to Understand, Hard to Live”: Possible Associations between Neurologic Language Impairments and Suicide Risk
title “Hard to Say, Hard to Understand, Hard to Live”: Possible Associations between Neurologic Language Impairments and Suicide Risk
title_full “Hard to Say, Hard to Understand, Hard to Live”: Possible Associations between Neurologic Language Impairments and Suicide Risk
title_fullStr “Hard to Say, Hard to Understand, Hard to Live”: Possible Associations between Neurologic Language Impairments and Suicide Risk
title_full_unstemmed “Hard to Say, Hard to Understand, Hard to Live”: Possible Associations between Neurologic Language Impairments and Suicide Risk
title_short “Hard to Say, Hard to Understand, Hard to Live”: Possible Associations between Neurologic Language Impairments and Suicide Risk
title_sort “hard to say, hard to understand, hard to live”: possible associations between neurologic language impairments and suicide risk
topic Case Report
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8699610/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34942896
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/brainsci11121594
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