Including Pick's Disease & Motor Neurone Disease

Frontotemporal Dementias (FTD) are caused when the brain cells die at an accelerated rate, eventually leading to an eventual 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 psychological 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