Archive for March 1st, 2010

Posted on March 1, 2010 - by Nurse Virginia

FRONTAL LOBE DEMENTIA SO DIFFERENT FROM ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE

(Part 1 of 2)
Ralph was so pleased with the report from his total body scan. No sign of cancer, heart disease, everything he could have wished for. The information on his brain just didn’t seem to register with Ralph, but his wife Marge saw it. There it was in black and white, telling Marge that Ralph’s brain wasn’t normal. The front lobes weren’t equal in size. One of his frontal lobes had shrunk and was obviously smaller than the other.

Symptoms of decline in function of frontal lobes- (as reported by Marge):
Decrease in activity level
Ralph had seemed withdrawn, no motivation to do much other than watch television. His loss of initiative and apparent apathy had made his daughters question whether he was depressed. They felt anyone watching TV all day must be depressed. But Marge knew Ralph wasn’t at all depressed in fact if anything, he appeared very content. He wore an expression that always seemed mildly amused.

Decrease in judgment
Ralph’s most noticeable change in behavior was his lack of judgment in financial matters. He was very impulsive with money, and had difficulty recognizing consequences of his behavior. For some time he had been thinking of himself as quite the investor. Recently taking his entire Social Security check and “investing” in whatever occurred to him in that moment.  Ralph no longer could plan ahead and realize he would need that money for medications, gas, food, pocket money.  His irresponsibility and compulsiveness certainly did not seem to be causing him any emotional distress.

Impairment in social skills
Even though having little judgment handling money can be distressful for the family. The hardest change Marge found was Ralph’s potential for inappropriate behavior. He was overly familiar with strangers, intruding on other table’s conversations in restaurants, attempting to engage anyone anywhere in conversation.  His open and friendly nature, kept people from immediately identifying that there was a problem with Ralph. But Marge had been aware for some time that Ralph needed to be distracted quickly, when in public before he was identified as an intrusion.

Inappropriate social behavior
Recently Ralph had demonstrated a loosening of social restraints in his conversation. At a recent social gathering, he had told a very suggestive joke to an elderly aunt that resulted in extensive apologies all around. However not on the part of Ralph, he it seemed had moved on and showed no emotional distress over the event.

The facts of frontal lobe dementia
Frontal lobe dementia can affect men and women equally. It can present at any age, at times as early as age forty. While frontal lobe dementia is a degenerative condition, some people have a fast decline while others may have relatively stable symptoms for well over ten years.  There are no known medications at this time to prevent or treat frontal lobe dementia.

See also blogs:  Symptoms Haven’t Changed for 100 years, January 3, 2010
What is Dementia – Reversible Dementia, Irreversible Dementia,             Vascular Dementia, and Alzheimer’s Dementia, December 17, 2009

Virginia Garberding, R.N.
Director of Education, The Wealshire, Lincolnshire, Illinois
Author: Please Get To Know Me – Aging with Dignity and Relevance
www.pleasegettoknowme.com