(advertisement) Excerpt from Frontal and Temporal Lobe Dementia Synonyms, Key Words, and Related Terms: frontotemporal dementia, frontal dementia, nonspecific dementia, Pick's disease, Pick disease, primary progressive aphasia, FTD, PPA Background: Cases of elderly patients with progressive language deterioration have been described since Arnold Pick's landmark case report of 1892. This case study, "On the relationship between aphasia and senile atrophy of the brain," still serves as a frame of reference for apparently focal brain syndromes in "diffuse" or "generalized" degenerative diseases of the brain. In 1982, Mesulam reported 6 patients with progressive aphasia, gradually worsening over a number of years, who did not develop a more generalized dementia. Since Mesulam's publication, numerous other cases have been reported. This disorder, which currently is termed "primary progressive aphasia" (PPA), has gained acceptance as a syndrome. Rarely, cases of isolated right frontal or temporal degeneration have been reported. These patients experience failure to recognize family members (prosopagnosia), failure to remember topographic relationships, and similar disorders. In England, cases of frontal lobe dementia have been described with progressive dysfunction of the frontal lobes. In a series of case reports, Neary and Snowden outlined a syndrome with initial symptoms that were suggestive of psychiatric illness. However, the following frontal lobe behavioral abnormalities appeared over time: disinhibition, impulsivity, impersistence, inertia, loss of social awareness, neglect of personal hygiene, mental rigidity, stereotyped behavior, and "utilization behavior" (ie, tendency to pick up and manipulate any object in the environment). These descriptions included language abnormalities such as reduced speech output, mutism, echolalia, and perseveration. Recently, the condition described in the North American literature as PPA and that described in the European literature as "frontal dementia" have been combined under the diagnosis "frontotemporal dementia" (FTD). | |
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