Additionally, patients are able to speak with correct grammar; the main problem is finding the appropriate word to identify an object or person.Sometimes, subjects may know what to do with an object, but still not be able to give a name to the object. For example, if a subject is shown an orange and asked what it is called, the subject may be well aware that the object can be peeled and eaten, and may even be able to demonstrate this by actions or even verbal responses; however, they cannot recall that the object is called an "orange". Sometimes, when a person with this condition is multilingual, they might confuse the language they are speaking in trying to find the right word (inadvertent code-switching). Management
No method is available to completely cure anomic aphasia. However, treatments can help improve word-finding skills. Although a person with anomia may find recalling many types of words to be difficult, such as common nouns, proper nouns, verbs, etc., many studies have shown that treatment for object words, or nouns, has shown promise in rehabilitation research. The treatment includes visual aids, such as pictures, and the patient is asked to identify the object or activity. However, if that is not possible, then the patient is shown the same picture surrounded by words associated with the object or activity. Throughout the process, positive encouragement is provided. The treatment shows an increase in word finding during treatment; however, word identifying decreased two weeks after the rehabilitation period.
However, imaging cannot diagnose anomia on its own because the lesions may not be located deep enough to damage the white matter or the arcuate fasciculus. However, anomic aphasia is very difficult to associate with a specific lesion location in the brain. Therefore, the combination of speech tests and imaging tests has the highest sensitivity and specificity.Picture-naming tests, such as the Philadelphia Naming Test (PNT), are also utilized in diagnosing aphasias. Analysis of picture-naming is compared with reading, picture categorizing, and word categorizing. There is a considerable similarity among aphasia syndromes in terms of picture-naming behavior, however anomic aphasiacs produced the fewest phonemic errors and the most multiword circumlocutions. These results suggest minimal word-production difficulty in anomic aphasia relative to other aphasia syndromes.Anomic aphasia has been diagnosed in some studies using the Aachen Aphasia Test (AAT), which tests language functioning after brain injury. This test aims to: identify the presence of aphasia; provide a profile of the speakers language functioning according to different language modalities (speaking, listening, reading, writing) and different levels of linguistic description (phonology, morphology, semantics, and syntax); give a measure of severity of any breakdown. This test was administered to patients participating in a study in 2012, and researchers found that on the naming subtest of the AAT patients showed relevant naming difficulties and tended to substitute the words they could not produce with circumlocutions.The Western Aphasia Battery is another test that is conducted with the goal of classifying aphasia subtypes and rating the severity of the aphasiac impairment.