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ByLauranNeergaard TheAssociatedPress WASHINGTON A mysteri- ous brain disorder can be confused with early Al- zheimer's disease although it isn't robbing patients of their memories but of the words to talk about them. It's called primary pro- gressive aphasia, and re- searchers said Sunday they're finding better ways to diagnose the lit- tle-known syndrome. That will help people whose thoughts are lucid but who are verbally locked in to get the right kind of care. "I'm using a speech de- vice to talk to you," Robert Voogt of Virginia Beach, Virginia, said by playing a recording from a phone- sized assistive device at a meeting of the American Association for the Ad- vancement of Science. "I have trouble speaking, but I can understand you." Even many doctors know little about this rare kind of aphasia, abbre- viated PPA, but raising awareness is key to im- prove care — and because a new study is underway to try to slow the disease by electrically stimulating the affected brain region. PPA wasn't identified as a separate disorder un- til the 1980s, and while specialists estimate thou- sands of Americans may have it, there's no good count. Families may not even seek care because they assume a loved one's increasingly garbled at- tempts to communicate are because of age-related dementia, said Dr. Argye Elizabeth Hillis of Johns Hopkins University. Of- ten, it's when those people reach neurologists who re- alize they aren't repeating questions or forgetting in- structions that the diagno- sis emerges. "Nobody's talking to them, nobody's involv- ing them. It's very sad," said Dr. Margaret Rogers of the American Speech- Language-Hearing Associ- ation. Yet for many, "they can handle their own fi- nances, they can drive, they can appreciate mu- sic. There's a lot that still works for them." Speech and language are hugely complex. Just to speak requires activating 100 muscles between the lungs and lips to produce at least 14 distinct sounds per second, said Dr. Joseph Duffy of the Mayo Clinic. Stroke or brain injury patients often have trouble making sounds or retriev- ing words. PPA occurs for a different reason, because the brain regions that con- trol language become dis- eased and degenerate, re- sulting in communication difficulties that may mimic broader dementia. Special MRI scans can tell the difference, Hillis said. They also can help identify whose aphasia will worsen faster, and who has a subtype that can morph to become Al- zheimer's-like, where they eventually do lose memory and the ability to under- stand language. Standard language ther- apy has patients match pictures to the correct word, to keep the wiring involved as active as pos- sible. Now, Hillis' team is testing if a kind of brain stimulation that sends electrical signals through the skull can rev up the ef- fects of that treatment. In the first 19 patients tested, people did better retrieving the right words for about two months af- ter receiving the electri- cal stimulation than when they received sham zaps with their regular therapy, Hillis reported Sunday. They were more able to name objects they hadn't practiced, and brain scans showed better connectiv- ity in the affected region. But it will take far more study to prove if the treat- ment produces lasting ef- fects, she cautioned. Until there's better med- ical treatment, Voogt, the Virginia patient, illustrates how assistive communica- tion devices can help pa- tients' quality of life. Now 66, Voogt was di- agnosed 10 years ago, with a form of PPA that makes him unable to say words even though he can under- stand and type them via email, text or his assistive device. He owns a brain- injury rehabilitation cen- ter, and knew how to track down a specialist for di- agnosis when he first had trouble retrieving words. Sunday, Voogt pa- tiently answered Hillis' questions by typing into a device called the Mini- Talk, or calling up ver- bal phrases he'd pre-pro- grammed into it. Asked to say "dog," Voogt forced out only a garble. But asked what cowboys ride, he typed horses and the de- vice "said" the word. His form of PPA also impacts grammar so that he has difficulty forming full sentences, Hillis said. Asked to write that's "it's a cold day in Washing- ton," Voogt typed a min- ute or two and the device's recorder emitted "cold Washington D.C." HEALTH Lossforwordscanbeabraindisorder,notAlzheimer's By Lindsey Tanner The Associated Press CHICAGO Two blood-build- ingdrugsinjectedsoonafter birth may give tiny preemies a lasting long-term edge, boosting brain development and IQ by age 4, a first-of-its- kind study found. The study was small but the implications are big if larger, longer studies prove the drugs help even the play- ing field for these at-risk children, the researchers and other experts say. Babies who got the med- icine scored much better by age 4 on measures of intel- ligence, language and mem- ory than preemies who didn't get it. The medicine group's scores on an impor- tant behavior measure were just as good as a control group of 4-year-olds born on time at a normal weight. The results are "super ex- citing," said Dr. Robin Ohls, the lead author and a pedi- atrics professor at the Uni- versity of New Mexico. She said it's the first evidence of long-term benefits of the drugs when compared to no blood-boosting treatment. Even though the treated youngsters didn't do as well as the normal-weight group on most measures, their scores were impressive and suggest greater brain devel- opment than the other pree- mies, Ohls said. They scored about 12 points higher on average on IQ tests than the un- treated kids but about 10 points lower than the nor- mal-weight group. On tests measuring memory and im- pulsive behavior, the treated kids fared as well as those born at normal weight. Here's how those differ- ences would show up in a preschool setting: The un- treated group would be the kids who struggle a little in class, while the those who got the medicines would do OK but not as well as those born at a normal weight, said Dr. Michael Schreiber, a prematurity expert at the University of Chicago's Comer Children's Hospital. Survival of extremely tiny preemies has improved dramatically in the past 50 years,buttreatmentformed- ical problems and develop- mental delays linked with prematurity has not kept pace, Schreiber said. He was not involved in the study. He said larger studies in- cluding more diverse patient populations are needed to determine if the drugs can helpabroaderrange ofpree- mies. The study involved 53 children, most white or Hispanic, born more than a month premature and weighing less than 3 pounds at hospitals in New Mexico, Utah and Colorado. Two dozen normal-weight chil- dren were also included. Results were published Monday in Pediatrics. Shortly after birth the preemies were randomly as- signed to receive injections of either erythropoeitin (EPO), three times weekly; darbepoetin once a week for several weeks; or no treat- ment. The drugs build red blood cells and are approved to treat anemia caused by cancer treatment or result- ing from other conditions. Preemies lack the abil- ity to make new red blood cells and often need fre- quent blood transfusions to replace blood taken for lab tests. The drugs are now sometimes used to try to re- duce their need for transfu- sions, in doses similar to the ones studied. The drugs can increase endurance by boosting oxy- gen levels in the blood, and have been implicated in somesportsdopingscandals. Dr. Sandra Juul, a Uni- versity of Washington pedi- atrics professor, is leading a larger multi-center study of both drugs in preemies and said it's too soon to rec- ommend the medicines for treating developmental de- lays. Still, since almost half of infants born extremely early have significant develop- mental problems, any treat- ment that could improve their lives "is incredibly im- portant," Juul said. BIRTHS Blood-boosters may give tiny preemies a developmental edge The Associated Press PALO ALTO A team of mental health experts from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is scheduled to be in California this week to investigate a se- ries of suicides by teenag- ers in the affluent univer- sity town of Palo Alto. Santa Clara County of- ficials took the unusual step of inviting the CDC to do an epidemiologi- cal study on the teen sui- cide problem that has an- guished Palo Alto par- ents, teachers and young people for at least seven years, the San Jose Mer- cury News reported. The team, which in- cludes representatives from both the CDC and the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Ser- vices Administration, has spent the last three months working with the county Public Health De- partment to gather data on suicides, suicide at- tempts and suicidal be- havior among Santa Clara County youth. Starting Tuesday, its members plan to spend two weeks on the ground meeting with local doc- tors and community lead- ers, according to the Mer- cury News. Their research also will include evaluat- ing existing suicide pre- vention programs, re- viewing media coverage of the teen suicides and identifying the factors that might put Palo Al- to's youth at greater risk, CDC spokeswoman Court- ney Lenard told the news- paper. Six teenagers from Palo Alto, the home of Stan- ford University, killed themselves in both 2009 and 2010, events that triggered public forums, peer-run support groups and police patrols at the commuter train tracks where some of the young people ended their lives. Yet four more teens com- mitted suicide in both 2014 and 2015. From 2010 through 2014, an average of 20 mi- nors and young adults a year died by suicide in Santa Clara County as a whole. Palo Alto officials asked the state and county to re- quest the CDC evaluation after hearing of a suicide assessment the agency con- ducted last year in Fairfax, Virginia, where 85 people between the ages of 10 and 24 killed themselves in a 5-year period. The Fairfax County study concluded that among the possible risk factors facing young peo- ple there were an inade- quate number of school counselors, stigma and denial around mental ill- ness, pressure to excel ac- ademically and bullying through social media. A preliminary report on the situation in Palo Alto is expected to be completed soon after the site visit. INVESTIGATION Teen suicides in Palo Alto to be subject of federal study PHOTOSBYMANUELBALCECENETA—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS Dr. Argye Elizabeth Hillis of John Hopkins Hospital talks to her patient Robert Voogt, le , as she speaks during an interview in Washington on Sunday. Voogt suffers from primary progressive aphasia, a brain disorder. Families may not even seek care because they assume a loved one's increasingly garbled attempts to communicate are because of age- related dementia, said Hillis. Robert Voogt uses the communication device MiniTalk to answer questions during a news conference in Washington on Sunday. redbluff.mercy.org HIRE (Head Injury Recreational Entity) 10:00am-2:00pm Mondays Wright Rusty Brown 529-2059 Grief Support 3:00pm-5:00pm Thursdays Wright Kristin Hoskins 528-4207 Lupus/Fibromyalgia Support Group 5:30pm-8:00pm 2/16 Tuesday Columba Jackie Kitchell 529-3029 (530) 529-1220 100 Jackson St. Red Bluff $ 50 .00 No Enrollment Fee with ACH sign up monthly COUPLE SPECIAL Coupleconsistsof spouse, significant other, or child under the age of 20. Any children added to that is only $10.00 a month. Newpatientsalwayswelcome! Dr.AuroraBarriga,Optometrist 715 Jackson St., Suite A, Red Bluff (530) 527-9242 Red Bluff Vision Center An Optometric Practice YourFullServiceEyeCareProfessionals Quality Eye Care, Quality Eyewear Protect your eyes from High Intensity Blue Wavelength Light! 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