Text/Deng Zhengliang (Director of Jide Traditional Chinese Medicine Clinic)
Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is a rare neurodegenerative disease, also known as frontal lobe dementia or frontal lobe degeneration. It is a form of dementia distinct from Alzheimer’s disease that most commonly affects middle-aged people.
FTD primarily affects the frontal and temporal regions of the brain, which are responsible for controlling behaviour, language and emotion. Due to the degeneration of nerve cells in the brain, patients may experience the following symptoms:
Speech Impairment:People with FTD may experience speech problems, such as language barriers, aphasia, and language fluency impairments.
Behavioral and emotional problems:Patients may experience behavioral and emotional problems such as social dysregulation, apathy, apathy, and emotional instability.
Memory and spatial perception:Compared with Alzheimer’s disease, FTD has less impact on memory and spatial perception, but may affect executive function. FTD is the second most common form of early-onset dementia following Alzheimer’s disease.
The specific etiology of FTD is still unclear, but it is related to factors such as gene abnormalities and abnormal protein metabolism. There is currently no definitive treatment, but medication and behavioral therapy can help relieve symptoms. Treatment for FTD is usually aimed at improving quality of life rather than a complete cure.
Hollywood action superstar Bruce Willis (Bruce Willis) decided to retire due to aphasia. After further medical diagnosis, he was diagnosed with “frontotemporal dementia”.
Types of frontotemporal dementia are:
Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is a rare neurodegenerative disease, also known as frontal lobe dementia or frontal lobe degeneration. (123RF)behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia
Behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia is the most common type of FTD. It can become impulsive and uninhibited, behaving in socially unacceptable ways; or it can become listless and aloof. Approximately 12-13% of individuals with behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia develop motor neurone disease.
Semantic dementia
Semantic dementia (SD) is characterized by a loss of semantic understanding, resulting in impaired word comprehension. Speech, however, remains fluent and grammatical.
progressive non-fluent aphasia
Progressive non-fluent aphasia is characterized by progressive difficulties with speech production.
other features
People with FTD often struggle with overeating and compulsive behaviors. Binge eating habits are often associated with changes in food preferences (cravings for more sweets, carbohydrates), eating what cannot be eaten, and food grabbing from others.
People with FTD show marked deficits in executive function and working memory. Most become unable to perform skills that require complex planning or sequencing.
In rare cases, FTD can occur in people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a disease of motor neurons. When combined with FTD, ALS patients had a worse prognosis, shortening survival by regarding a year. ◇
