I thought this would be a good opportunity to talk about what

is frontotemporal dementia?

How does it differ from the most common type of dementia, Alzheimer's disease?

What age does it usually happen?

What are some of the classic hallmark features and what

parts of the brain are affected?

First of all, frontotemporal dementia is often referred to as F T D for.

It gets its name from the areas of the brain that are most impacted, which are

the frontal lobes and the temporal lobes.

So if we're looking at a brain here, super dupe, your fancy brain, the frontal

lobes are affected in frontal temporal dementia and the temporal lobes, which are

kind of like just below your temporals.

When the frontal part of the brain is impacted, it often affects a

person's behavior, personality.

They usually do things that are considered impaired or socially inappropriate.

They might do things.

Totally out of character for what they would normally do.

It's also the part of the brain that's responsible for planning

and judgment and reasoning.

And so those are types of areas where somebody would have difficulty

when the frontal lobes are involved.

It would make it hard for somebody to be able to manage their own finances,

manage their own medications, be able to make decisions, or keep multiple parts

of information in their head at one.

The temporal lobes of the brain make it so that somebody is able

to identify objects that they see.

It's responsible for retrieving memory.

It's also primarily responsible for language, and it's responsible

for language in different forms, meaning being able to speak as

well as being able to understand.

If you recall, several months ago, news outlets came out and said

that Bruce Willis was diagnosed.

Aphasia.

Well, aphasia is not actually a diagnosis, it's a condition of another diagnosis.

So we are just now finding out that other diagnosis happens to be frontal temporal

dementia, and aphasia is a condition of language where the person might have

a hard time speaking or understanding.

Now, there are three different subtypes of frontal temporal dementia.

The first subtype is the behavioral variant of frontal temporal.

This subtype really involves changes in personality and behavior where

the person might have disinhibition, meaning they might be impulsive or

have some inappropriate behaviors.

They may lack social etiquette, and they're kind of not able to

pick up on the social cues and norms happening around them.

They may also have apathy, which is basically just lack of motivation

or interest in activities or things that they even used to enjoy.

They just kind of no longer seem to be interested in anything.

And also they tend to lack insight, otherwise known as anus agnosia, where

they don't really seem to be aware that they have these limitations.

There's also the, the mantic.

Primary progressive aphasia, subtype of ftd.

So in the semantic variation, the person has a hard time identifying

objects and people, but their language abilities might be okay.

They might have some word finding difficulties, so they might look at

a marker and not know it's a marker.

They might look at you and not know who you are, not recognize you.

In the non-flu variation of primary progressive aphasia, this is where

language abilities are really pronounced.

They have a hard time forming sentences.

They may have totally incorrect grammar.

This is where they might leave out words that are important to a sentence, but just

use certain words of a sentence, which makes it really hard for the caregiver

to understand what they are saying.

So for example, if they're trying to say, I want to make a phone.

They might just say, make call, and the caregiver is left trying to figure out

what are they really needing to happen?

What are they trying to say?

Well, behavior change and language changes are the most predominant

symptoms, especially in the beginning.

Other symptoms such as memory impairment, can come out later

on in the disease process.

F T D tends to be diagnosed at an earlier age than Alzheimer's disease,

so most people with Alzheimer's disease get diagnosed after the age of 65.

, whereas most people with frontal temporal dementia tend to get

diagnosed around age 50 to 60.

People with frontal temporal dementia often tend to have a lower lifespan than

those with Alzheimer's disease as well.

It's hard for anybody when their loved one gets a diagnosis of dementia, and

while I certainly would not wish that anybody get a diagnosis of dementia,

I am super grateful that Bruce Willis's family has come out publicly

with his diagnosis because it sheds.

On another type of dementia that often does not get the attention.

And so I appreciate that.

It's an opportunity to have more people understand there is more

than just one type of dementia.

There is more than just Alzheimer's disease, and the way they look in

the beginning can be a bit different.

So for example, in frontal temporal dementia, Usually we're not gonna

see a lot of the memory impairment that most people would expect if

somebody has dementia Careblazer

if you have any other questions about frontal temporal dementia or

another type of dementia or any of these subtypes, you can go ahead

and leave them in a comment below.

I'll be sure to review them and do future videos on any of the

common themes that you may have.

I'm sending you so much love.

If you haven't signed up for your free class on how to care for a loved one

with dementia without the overwhelm, dread, and confusion, there's a

link for you below this video.

Take care.

Sending you.

Bye.

Also, Niko gets a belly rub for every person who subscribes from this video.

So if you haven't already, click the red subscribe button, it's totally free.

And Niko says, thank you very much.