Frontotemporal demementia

[Weebs79]

My mum has not been diagnosed with Frontotemporal dementia but having done some research am almost convinced that she has some form of the disease.

Over the last 4 months i have noticed some significant changes in her. She has developed a fear of social situations and phobias of things she has never had before. Which in turn has caused her a lot of anxiety which has made her withdrawn, lack of interest and taken to spending a lot of time in her bedroom, reading books and watching TV. She has always been outgoing, loved socialising and always wanted to be out and about. She visited the doctor and has been prescribed Citalopram and since taking them has shown an improvement she is at least meeting up with friends and looking forward to our holiday.

I have noticed at times she has an angered expression on her face and is aggressive in her tone when talking in normal conversation. She has also started bringing up things from when I was a child and talking to me as if I'm a child. Again very unlike her.

I also noticed that when she was writing some instructions for her new phone she made some simple spelling mistakes, she has never had a problem with spelling. She has also changed the way she signs her signature.

She also got confused about my husbands car saying that it was a 2 seater. He did have a car like this but it was maybe 10 years ago or more. She has made some other strange comments.


Has anybody else ever experienced symptoms like this with someone they know of this type of dementia?
Is this early symptoms?
Is their benefits of an early diagnosis?

 

[cragmaid]

Hello and welcome to TP.
I'd be less bothered, at this stage, about the "type" diagnosis. Many versions of Dementia have similar symptoms. I suggest that you keep a diary of the oddiities and strange occurances for a couple of weeks and ask her GP to call her in for a " Well Woman" check. Now, unless you have POA ( power of attorney) her GP quite rightly might refuse to speak with you, but if you enclose a copy of your diary and tell him/her of your concerns, you could ask them to invite Mum in for a check-up. Obviously, if you think that Mum would go for an appointment without the subterfuge, then you could miss out the pre-appointment contact.
Good luck and keep us in the loop..

 

[Countryboy]

My mum has not been diagnosed with Frontotemporal dementia but having done some research am almost convinced that she has some form of the disease.

Hi I’m not sure if this well help but has your Mun had the brain scans , I have Fronto-temporal-dementia I was diagnosed with Alchemizes in 1999 had the following: PET brain scan in 2003 and the SPECT brain scan in 2004 I was then diagnosed with Fronto-temporal-dementia although I can recognize and experienced the things you mentioned and it is difficult (in my case I swear quite a lot mainly because it’s the frustration of thinking something but somehow it gets lost before it reaches my tongue difficult to explain)

Obviously were individuals and cope with our illnesses differently I find I need to work hard to overcome these feeling MYSELF after 16 years I carry on as normal as thought I haven’t got a problem if others got a problem with well tough at least I’m alive and above ground


PET (Positron Emission Tomography): A type of nuclear medicine scanning that involves capturing cross-sectional images of the brain, much like CT scanning. The images that are created are functional rather than the structural images of CT and MRI. Functional images capture how various parts of the brain are working, which makes it a diagnostic tool for neurodegenerative conditions such as FTD. Areas of the frontal or temporal lobes that are not as active as they should be may indicate FTD.

SPECT (Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography): A type of nuclear medicine scanning that is very similar to PET. SPECT measures blood flow and activity levels in the brain, which make it a diagnostic tool for identifying behavioral and cognitive problems in persons with neurodegenerative conditions such as FTD.

 

[Hellyg]

Sorry to hear about the diagnosis.

My husband has been diagnosed with FTD and the symptoms you describe sound very familiar. Mood changes, increased anxiety. My husband has the Semantic variant and most certainly experiences difficulties spelling and writing. It is tough, but slowly we are finding a way to cope, although it is as an ever changing situation. There are websites/forums focusing on FTD which I have found helpful to understand about the symptons such as http://www.ftdsupportforum.com, it helped me understand the differing symptoms of the illness.

 

[Pollyanna153]

Husband with frontotemporal

My mum has not been diagnosed with Frontotemporal dementia but having done some research am almost convinced that she has some form of the disease.

Over the last 4 months i have noticed some significant changes in her. She has developed a fear of social situations and phobias of things she has never had before. Which in turn has caused her a lot of anxiety which has made her withdrawn, lack of interest and taken to spending a lot of time in her bedroom, reading books and watching TV. She has always been outgoing, loved socialising and always wanted to be out and about. She visited the doctor and has been prescribed Citalopram and since taking them has shown an improvement she is at least meeting up with friends and looking forward to our holiday.

I have noticed at times she has an angered expression on her face and is aggressive in her tone when talking in normal conversation. She has also started bringing up things from when I was a child and talking to me as if I'm a child. Again very unlike her.

I also noticed that when she was writing some instructions for her new phone she made some simple spelling mistakes, she has never had a problem with spelling. She has also changed the way she signs her signature.

She also got confused about my husbands car saying that it was a 2 seater. He did have a car like this but it was maybe 10 years ago or more. She has made some other strange comments.


Has anybody else ever experienced symptoms like this with someone they know of this type of dementia?
Is this early symptoms?
Is their benefits of an early diagnosis?

My husband has been diagnosed with this.
He has problems with signatures
If I have something on TV in the lounge he very often goes in bedroom watching portable and says he quite happy here watching such and such a thing. I say watch it in here but I will now just let him decide where he wants to be Take him a sandwich and a drink to make sure he eats and drinks
He has now been put on sertraline and it helps with sleeping as he spent hours falling into an anxious sleep in the chair. He sleeps less in the chair now and sleeps better in the night although he talks most of the night so doesn't get peaceful sleep
I find on daily basis that he can forget how to do the simplest things he just has a confused look on his face so I just help him without making a fuss. It has been very hard but we just have to go with the flow as they say.
I haven't seen a lot on here about people with frontotemporal so if you want to chat about it anytime please do