Communication impairment in the AIDS dementia complex (ADC): a case report

Abstract

This article details three examinations of communication impairment over 13 months in a man with AIDS dementia complex (ADC) and compares his performance on standardised language testing with that of two control participants. He had mild language impairments as measured on standardised tests but was severely impaired in pragmatic language skills. When compared with control participants, he was particularly impaired in the skills of topic maintenance and informational redundancy and equally impaired as matched controls with AIDS on the items of non-specific vocabulary and excessive revisions. This man's communication impairment as a result of ADC, which was characterised by poor conversation skills in the absence of frank aphasia or dysarthria, may be related to non-linguistic cognitive impairment.

Learning outcomes: Readers will be able to: (i) identify and recognise a general process of central nervous system changes and symptoms in ADC; (ii) recognise and describe changes in the language and communication skills in people with dementias resulting from diffuse neuropathology including in those with ADC; (iii) consider any changes in the communicative pragmatic style of people with ADC, in the light of hypothesising their possible links with cognitive changes in the executive functions of the brain e.g. attention and short term memory.