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Psychotic symptoms in frontotemporal dementia: a diagnostic dilemma?

BACKGROUND: Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) constitutes a spectrum of neurodegenerative disorders associated with degeneration of, predominantly, the frontal and temporal lobes. The clinical heterogeneity is evident, and early diagnosis is a challenge. The primary objectives were to characterize psych...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Landqvist Waldö, Maria, Gustafson, Lars, Passant, Ulla, Englund, Elisabet
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Cambridge University Press 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4413855/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25486967
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1041610214002580
Descripción
Sumario:BACKGROUND: Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) constitutes a spectrum of neurodegenerative disorders associated with degeneration of, predominantly, the frontal and temporal lobes. The clinical heterogeneity is evident, and early diagnosis is a challenge. The primary objectives were to characterize psychotic symptoms, initial clinical diagnoses and family history in neuropathologically verified FTD-patients and to analyze possible correlations with different neuropathological findings. METHODS: The medical records of 97 consecutive patients with a neuropathological diagnosis of frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) were reevaluated. Psychotic symptoms (hallucinations, delusions, paranoid ideas), initial diagnosis and family history for psychiatric disorders were analyzed. RESULTS: Psychotic symptoms were present in 31 patients (32%). There were no significant differences in age at onset, disease duration or gender between patients with and without psychotic symptoms. Paranoid ideas were seen in 20.6%, and hallucinations and delusions in 17.5% in equal measure. Apart from a strong correlation between psychotic symptoms and predominantly right-sided brain degeneration, the majority of patients (77.4%) were tau-negative. Only 14.4% of the patients were initially diagnosed as FTD, while other types of dementia were seen in 34%, other psychiatric disorders in 42%, and 9.2% with other cognitive/neurological disorders. The patients who were initially diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder were significantly younger than the patients with other initial clinical diagnoses. A positive heredity for dementia or other psychiatric disorder was seen in 42% and 26% of the patients respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Psychotic symptoms, not covered by current diagnostic criteria, are common and may lead to clinical misdiagnosis in FTD.