A High-Level Look at Frontotemporal Dementia vs. Alzheimer's Disease

Not all dementia is the same..nor is dementia the same as Alzheimer’s disease. You may not realize there are variations! It’s confusing for sure. However, here we will address at a high level Frontotemporal Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease.

First off: Frontotemporal Dementia or FTD is a disease process that results in progressive damage to the temporal and/or frontal lobes of the brain--the parts of the brain that control functions like decision-making, personality, social behavior and use of language.

Frontotemporal Dementia vs. Alzheimer’s Disease

Both frontotemporal degeneration (FTD) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) are characterized by atrophy of the brain, and a gradual, progressive loss of brain function. However, several important distinctions can help to differentiate between the two, and as a caregiver it’s important to know the following:

  •  FTD is primarily a disease of behavior and language dysfunction, while Alzheimer’s disease is about memory loss;

  • FTD often begins earlier than AD with an average age of onset in the 50s and 60s, a full 10 years before the average Alzheimer’s patient is diagnosed;

  • FTD patients exhibit behavioral and personality changes (lack of concern for social norms or other people, lack of insight into their own behaviors), but retain cardinal features of memory (keeping track of day-to-day events, orientation to space and time);

  • AD patients display increasing memory deficits, but typically retain socially appropriate behavior;

  • Some FTD patients may have only language dysfunction and the language loss may be specific, such as an inability to name a familiar, everyday object;

  • The language decline seen in AD patients involves a milder problem with recalling names and words;

  • FTD patients are more likely to display motor abnormalities early on, such as difficulty walking, physical rigidity or tremors/shakiness (similar to what we see with Parkinson’s disease).

“FTD patients require an extra level of patience by caregivers,” says Kerri Paasch, a nurse with Prime Home Care LLC Compassionate Care Hospice. “This is because the individual might act out because FTD is more about behavior, not memory loss.”

With so many resources available via the web, we encourage you to do a little research on your own.

 
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