The prefix 'dys' comes
from Latin via a Greek word meaning 'bad'. It has four slightly different meanings.
(1) abnormal (2) impaired (3) difficult (4) bad dysaesthesia - impairment of the senses
but especially the sense of touch. It includes abnormal feelings such
as numbness, tingling or burning pain below the area of a spinal cord injury.
It comes from 'dys'' meaning abnormal and -aesthesia meaning feeling or sensation.
An example is the burning nerve pain of shingles. Auditory dysaesthesia describes
the pain or discomfort caused by sound.
Dysarthria is the difficulty in forming words or speaking them because of a
weakness of the muscles used in speaking. It comes from 'dys' meaning difficulty and
'arthria' meaning to articulate and use the muscles of speech to speak. An example of
the speech impairment is slurring of the speech. Dysgraphia is an impairment in
the ability to write often caused by a brain trauma. It does not mean being
unable to write because of illiteracy. It comes from 'dys' meaning abnormal and
graphia meaning writing. It can include poor handwriting, wrong or odd spelling
forms and writing words which are not correct. Dyskinesia is the inability to
control voluntary movements and the tendency to walk using jerky movements.
It comes from 'dys' meaning abnormal and kinesia meaning movement.
Tardive dyskinesia is a side effect of prolonged use of some major
tranquilisers in the treatment of brain injuries. People with tardive dyskinesia
poke out their tongues, smack their lips and chew constantly without meaning to.
Dysmetria is poor coordination and the inability to judge distances. It comes
from 'dys' meaning difficult and metria meaning to measure. Dysmetria causes
problems for people wanting to stop walking at a particular point. People
with dysmetria may overshoot or undershoot the mark and not be aware of
the distance between one object and another. This is called past pointing.
Dysphagia is the difficulty in getting food positioned correctly in the mouth
to be able to swallow it. It is also the difficulty swallowing food after it is
placed in the mouth. It comes from 'dys' meaning difficulty and phagia meaning
swallowing. Stroke patients in the early stages of recovery have to be very
careful when swallowing to avoid aspiration of food. Modified utensils as
well as an upright posture help to avoid this. Dysphasia is the impairment of
speech and comprehension usually caused by a brain injury. It comes from 'dys'
meaning abnormal and phasia meaning speech and verbal comprehension.
Dysphasia can occur in several forms depending on where the damage to the
brain is and which hemisphere is affected. Dysphasia can affect
comprehension, the ability to name people or objects, repetition of words or
phrases and speech itself.
The 3 most common types of dysphasia are expressive dysphasia where people
understand all that they hear but have difficulty expressing themselves,
receptive dysphasia where people can speak but may use nonsense words and
have comprehension problems. Global dysphasia is an abnormality with both
expressive and receptive dysphasia.