Commentary on: Psychotic symptoms in frontotemporal dementia: a diagnostic dilemma?

نویسنده

  • John T O'brien
چکیده

BACKGROUND Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) constitutes a spectrum of neurodegenerative disorders associated with degeneration of, predominantly, the frontal and temporal lobes. The clinical heterogeneity is evident, and early diagnosis is a challenge. The primary objectives were to characterize psychotic symptoms, initial clinical diagnoses and family history in neuropathologically verified FTD-patients and to analyze possible correlations with different neuropathological findings. METHODS The medical records of 97 consecutive patients with a neuropathological diagnosis of frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) were reevaluated. Psychotic symptoms (hallucinations, delusions, paranoid ideas), initial diagnosis and family history for psychiatric disorders were analyzed. RESULTS Psychotic symptoms were present in 31 patients (32%). There were no significant differences in age at onset, disease duration or gender between patients with and without psychotic symptoms. Paranoid ideas were seen in 20.6%, and hallucinations and delusions in 17.5% in equal measure. Apart from a strong correlation between psychotic symptoms and predominantly right-sided brain degeneration, the majority of patients (77.4%) were tau-negative. Only 14.4% of the patients were initially diagnosed as FTD, while other types of dementia were seen in 34%, other psychiatric disorders in 42%, and 9.2% with other cognitive/neurological disorders. The patients who were initially diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder were significantly younger than the patients with other initial clinical diagnoses. A positive heredity for dementia or other psychiatric disorder was seen in 42% and 26% of the patients respectively. CONCLUSIONS Psychotic symptoms, not covered by current diagnostic criteria, are common and may lead to clinical misdiagnosis in FTD.

برای دانلود متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید

ثبت نام

اگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید

منابع مشابه

Psychotic symptoms in frontotemporal dementia: a diagnostic dilemma?

Background: Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) constitutes a spectrum of neurodegenerative disorders associated with degeneration of, predominantly, the frontal and temporal lobes. The clinical heterogeneity is evident, and early diagnosis is a challenge. The primary objectives were to characterize psychotic symptoms, initial clinical diagnoses and family history in neuropathologically verified FTD-...

متن کامل

C9orf72-associated Frontotemporal Dementia and psychosis

Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease. About 30-40% of the cases have a positive family history, and genetic mutations are identifiable in an increasing proportion of cases. Although psychosis in FTD has been recognized for many years, it has not been taken as a key feature, and has not been included in the clinical diagnostic criteria. This paper assesses the...

متن کامل

Assessment of Aphasia in Iranian Patients Suffering From Frontotemporal Dementia

Objective Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is an uncommon type of dementia. The hallmark feature of FTD is the presentation with aphasia, or behavioral changes which are varies in different subtypes of the disease. We propose a quantitative aphasia test as an additive diagnostic tool for differentiation of FTD subtypes. Method: The study was performed on 20 patients, who were referred to dementia...

متن کامل

Psychotic symptoms in frontotemporal dementia: prevalence and review.

BACKGROUND/AIMS Although most patients with frontotemporal dementia (FTD) present with neuropsychiatric symptoms, the frequency of psychotic symptoms is unclear. This study aims to determine the prevalence of psychotic symptoms in a large cohort of well-diagnosed and followed FTD patients compared to age-matched patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and to further review the literature on psyc...

متن کامل

The neural correlates and clinical characteristics of psychosis in the frontotemporal dementia continuum and the C9orf72 expansion

OBJECTIVE This present study aims to address the gap in the literature regarding the severity and underlying neural correlates of psychotic symptoms in frontotemporal dementia with and without the C9orf72 gene expansion. METHODS Fifty-six patients with behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia (20 with concomitant amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) and 23 healthy controls underwent neuropsychol...

متن کامل

ذخیره در منابع من


  با ذخیره ی این منبع در منابع من، دسترسی به آن را برای استفاده های بعدی آسان تر کنید

برای دانلود متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید

ثبت نام

اگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید

عنوان ژورنال:
  • International psychogeriatrics

دوره 27 4  شماره 

صفحات  -

تاریخ انتشار 2015