LBD (Lewy Body Dementia)
LBD (Lewy Body Dementia)
Lewy body dementia
was first described in 1961 and has been increasingly recognized over the
past 5-10 years. Sometimes it occurs alone as the main illness and
sometimes it occurs simultaneously with Alzheimer's or Parkinson's disease. Some of the
most common symptoms include: Fluctuations
in confusion. The person may have acute episodes of confusion which
vary from hour to hour. Because the confusion is not prominent all
the time, caregivers may sometimes feel that the person is pretending to
be confused. Hallucinations
may occur at any time but are often worse during the times of acute confusion.
The most common hallucinations are visual and involve animate objects.
Most often people and usually in the same place. For example, a child
always sitting in the same place. Sensitivity
to some medications, usually sedatives. Some patients
develop the symptoms of Parkinson's disease, such as rigidity, tremor,
stooped posture and slow shuffling movements. This may be followed
later by the fluctuating cognitive performance, visual hallucinations,
memory loss and a progressive dementia. Others experience the cognitive
symptoms first and go on to develop Parkinsonian features later in the
disease. Some Lewy body
dementia patients may also have problems with their short term memory,
word finding difficulties, problems sustaining a line of thought and locating
objects in space. They may also experience symptoms of anxiety and
depression. At present
there is no cure for Lewy body disease. However it is sometimes possible
to treat some of the symptoms. For example if depression accompanies
the disease it will usually respond to antidepressant therapy. Occasionally
the hallucinations may be reduced with medication.
Cortical Lewy
bodies are the pathological features of Lewy body dementia. These are abnormal
brain cells which are distributed in different degrees throughout all areas
of the brain.
Lewy body dementia
is similar to Alzheimer's disease with progressive loss of memory, language,
calculation and reasoning as well as other higher mental functions.
However the progress of the illness may be more rapid than seen in Alzheimer's
disease.
Anybody can
develop Lewy body dementia. Post mortem studies examining the brains
of people with dementia suggest that it is relatively common. It
appears to affect men and women alike.
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