Including
Pick's Disease & Motor Neurone Disease
Frontotemporal Dementias
(FTD) are caused when the brain cells die at an accelerated rate,
eventually leading to a decline in thinking abilities and ultimately
Dementia. It affects 12% of Dementia sufferers in UK. This term
covers a range of similar conditions, most notably Pick's Disease,
Frontal Lobe Degeneration & Dementia associated with Motor Neurone
Disease
This is a degenerative condition of the front (anterior) part of
the brain. It differs from other forms of dementia and is marked
by dramatic changes in personality, behavior and some thought processes.
Often the sufferer becomes dis-interested in his life, choosing
to concentrate on simple mundane tasks. In later stages speech is
affected in the same way and will result in simple sentences or
words; which are often out of context. Occassionally this happens
in the early stages
During diagnosis blood
tests and neuroimaging examinations will be performed, although
the final diagnosis may well be the dependant on carefull psychologhical
testing
Treatment is limited
and relies on drugs which try to relieve apathy & depression,
limit food cravings & compulsive activity; namely Zoloft and
Paxil. There is no known cure and these drugs only aim to reduce
the extremes of this form of dementia
Further information
is available here:
http://www.alzwisc.org/frontotemporaldem.html
http://memory.ucsf.edu/Education/education_ftd.html
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