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Fronto Temporal dementia - Fronto Temporal dementia Symptom, Cause, Treatment
Frontotemporal lobar degeneration are clinical syndromes associated Which the help of Fronto Temporal dementia that we can defined in mental diseases disordered. FTD selectively affects the frontal lobe of the brain and may extend backward to the temporal lobe. The term fronto-temporal dementia covers a range of conditions, including Pick's disease, frontal lobe degeneration and dementia associated with motor neurone disease. It is important to identify these patients early in their course and to refer them to physicians in neurology and psychiatry who are experienced with their management. This referral is primarily important because the clinical course of FTD patients is different than patients with AD. These areas are responsible for our behaviour, emotional responses and language skills.
- Pathologically diverse including, Pick's disease, primary progressive aphasia
- Often occur at younger ages
- Predominantly affects behavior and language
- Damage more localized to frontal brain regions
- Contrast to AD, where hippocampus, temporal and parietal lobes are more affected
Symptoms of Fronto Temporal dementia
Symptoms include one or more of the following:
- Parkinson-like symptoms - may develop early in the disease. Symptoms include lack of facial expression, slow movements, rigidity, and balance problems. In some cases, the person may have eye movement problems or the inability to recognise their own hand (alien hand syndrome).
- Diminished cognitive skills - functions such as logical thinking, reasoning, problem solving and planning are impaired. Memory problems may occur as the disease progresses.
- Psychiatric problems - including delusions and hallucinations.
- Slips in personal hygiene - such as neglecting to wash or dress properly.
- Displays of excitable emotions - such as aggressive outbursts and angry pacing.
- Sexual changes - including inappropriate sexual behaviour and constant masturbating.
- Emotional coldness - emotions such as love, empathy and sympathy may be lost. The person appears indifferent to family and friends.
- Repetitive actions - such as hand wringing, clapping or singing the same song over and over.
- Impulsive behaviours - such as impulse buying or shoplifting.
- Unusual eating habits - such as binge eating, limiting the diet to particular foods, excessive drinking of liquids including alcohol, and trying to eat non-food items.
- Language problems - such as difficulties finding the right word to say, and difficulties with reading and writing.
- Lack of awareness - the person fails to realise that their behaviours are changed and inappropriate.
- The frontal lobe governs people's mood and behaviour. The person's mood and behaviour may become fixed and difficult to change, making them appear selfish and unfeeling
- The person does not usually have sudden lapses of memory which are characteristic of Alzheimer's disease.
Causes of Fronto Temporal dementia
Fronto Temporal dementia (FTD) is espeally used to a term of describe people who develop problems which particularly affect behaviour and language, as opposed to the early involvement of memory which is seen in Alzheimer's disease. Two of these types of nerve cell damage involve the deposition of abnormal protein clumps made up of the tau protein. Autopsy examinations can reveal the cause of the damage to the brain at the nerve cell level, and there are at least five different types of nerve cell damage in FTD. The cause is unknown, but significant evidence supports a genetic component to these syndromes.
- As many as 40-50% of patients with FTD have an affected family member.
- In the Dutch study, 38% of the index cases of FTD had a first-degree relative with similar symptoms at an early age of onset.
- Many cases now have been linked genetically to markers on chromosome band.
- This gene marker has linked cases of FTD in several Dutch families, cases of hereditary dysphasic and a variety of other clinical syndromes, including familial parkinsonism with dementia, corticobasal degeneration, and Pick disease without Pick bodies.
Treatment of Fronto Temporal dementia
The treatment optioms of Fronto Temporal dementia are as following
- Levodopa drug treatment - helps to dampen some of the motor
- symptoms. It is traditionally used in the treatment of Parkinson's disease.
- Sedatives - can help relieve symptoms such as agitation or wandering.
- Antipsychotic drugs - to help reduce the incidence of hallucinations.
- Anti-epileptic drugs - only helpful if the person has epileptic seizures
- Neurotransmitter-based treatments, analogous to the use of dopaminergic agents in Parkinson disease or anticholinesterase agents in AD, are in their infancy. Anecdotal experience, including that of the author, has not suggested a benefit similar to that of AD with anticholinesterase agents or memantine.
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