Frontotemporal dementia is a significant cause of dementia among younger people. It is often diagnosed between the ages of 45 and 65. It changes behaviour, language and personality, leading to impulsivity, socially inappropriate behaviour, and repetitive or compulsive behaviours.
A common feature of frontotemporal dementia is apathy, with a loss of motivation, initiative and interest in things. It is not depression, or laziness, but it can be mistaken for them. Brain-scanning studies have shown that in people with frontotemporal dementia it is caused by shrinkage in special parts at the front of the brain – and the more severe the shrinkage, the worse the apathy. But, apathy can begin decades before other symptoms, and be a sign of problems to come.
“Apathy is one of the most common symptoms in patients with frontotemporal dementia. It is linked to functional decline, decreased quality of life, loss of independence and poorer survival,” said Maura Malpetti, a cognitive scientist at the Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Cambridge.
“The more we discover about the earliest effects of frontotemporal dementia, when people still feel well in themselves, the better we can treat symptoms and delay or even prevent the dementia.”
Frontotemporal dementia can be genetic. About a third of patients have a family history of the condition. The new discovery about the importance of early apathy comes from the Genetic Frontotemporal dementia Initiative (GENFI), a collaboration between scientists across Europe and Canada. Over 1,000 people are taking part in GENFI, from families where there is a genetic cause of Frontotemporal dementia.
Now, in a study published in Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association, Professor Rowe and colleagues have shown how apathy predicts cognitive decline even before the dementia symptoms emerge.
Image: Woman sleeping
Credit: Zohre Nemati
Reproduced courtesy of the University of Cambridge