Article

A model for management of behavioral symptoms in frontotemporal lobar degeneration.

Department of Neurology, UCSF Memory and Aging Center, San Francisco, CA 94143-1207, USA.
Alzheimer Disease and Associated Disorders (impact factor: 2.81). 21(4):S64-9. DOI:10.1097/WAD.0b013e31815bf774 pp.S64-9
Source: PubMed

ABSTRACT Frontotemporal lobar degeneration is a neurologic condition that manifests profound behavioral, personality, and language symptoms. These changes, often unique to each person, may include social misconduct, eating disturbances, apathy, emotional blunting, childlike behavior, habits and rituals, executive dysfunction, and marked difficulty with speech and language. These symptoms occur as the result of cell loss in discrete areas of the brain, the frontal and/or anterior temporal lobes. Little is known about effective management of the behavioral symptoms that result from this disease. The purpose of this paper is to describe a model that could be used in the assessment and potential management of frontotemporal lobar degeneration behavioral symptoms. Suggestions for interventions are given for some of the more common FTD behaviors. The impact of behavioral symptoms on the family caregiver is discussed along with strategies for supportive services and recommendations for future study.

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  • Article: The Impact of Dementia Severity on Caregiver Burden in Frontotemporal Dementia and Alzheimer Disease
    Eneida Mioshi, David Foxe, Felicity Leslie, MClinNeuro Sharon Savage, Sharpley Hsieh, Laurie Miller, John R. Hodges, Olivier Piguet
    [show abstract] [hide abstract]
    ABSTRACT: Caregiver burden is greater in frontotemporal dementia (FTD) than in Alzheimer disease (AD). However, little is known of the impact of the 3 main clinical variants of FTD- behavioral-variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD), semantic dementia (SemDem), and progressive nonfluent aphasia (PNFA)-or the role of disease severity in caregiver burden. The Zarit Burden Inventory was used to measure caregiver burden of bvFTD (n=17), SemDem (n=20), PNFA (n=20), and AD (n=19) patients. Symptom duration, caregiver age, and relationship type were matched across groups. Moreover, a number of caregiver (mood, social network) and patient variables (functional disability, behavioral changes, relationship with caregiver, and dementia stage) were addressed to investigate their impact on caregiver burden. Caregivers of bvFTD patients reported the highest burden, whereas SemDem and PNFA caregivers reported burden similar to AD. A regression analysis revealed that caregiver burden in FTD, regardless of subtype, was explained by a model combining disease staging, relationship changes, and caregiver depression. Burden increased with disease severity in FTD. This study is the first to show that caregivers of SemDem, PNFA, and AD patients show similar burden, while confirming that bvFTD caregivers show higher burden than AD caregivers. More importantly, this study demonstrates that burden worsens with disease progression in FTD. (C) 2012 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Inc.
    Alzheimer Disease and Associated Disorders 08/2012; Publish Ahead of Print. · 2.81 Impact Factor
Data provided are for informational purposes only. Although carefully collected, accuracy cannot be guaranteed. The impact factor represents a rough estimation of the journal's impact factor and does not reflect the actual current impact factor. Publisher conditions are provided by RoMEO. Differing provisions from the publisher's actual policy or licence agreement may be applicable.

Keywords

anterior temporal lobes
 
apathy
 
behavioral symptoms
 
childlike behavior
 
common FTD behaviors
 
discrete areas
 
executive dysfunction
 
Frontotemporal lobar degeneration
 
frontotemporal lobar degeneration behavioral symptoms
 
future study
 
language symptoms
 
manifests profound behavioral
 
neurologic condition
 
potential management
 
social misconduct
 
Suggestions
 
unique
 

Jennifer Merrilees