Hollywood action superstar Bruce Willis announced his early retirement from acting in February 2023 due to aphasia.
What is Frontotemporal Dementia?
Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is one of the slow-progressing neurodegenerative diseases. It is a general terminology for various brain diseases that affect the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain. These brain areas are usually connected to personality, behavior, and language.Types of Frontotemporal Disorders
1. Behavioral Mutant Frontotemporal Dementia
People with behavioral mutant frontotemporal dementia often exhibit the following: difficulty in sequencing, planning steps of events, or prioritizing tasks or activities; repeating behaviors or speech compulsively; acting and speaking impulsively and inappropriately without considering others’ feelings or consequences; sudden loss of interest or care for activities and loved ones; and challenges in verbal and physical communication over time.2. Primary Progressive Aphasia
Primary progressive aphasia is a neurological syndrome that affects the ability to communicate. This may include difficulty using or understanding words (aphasia), speaking, reading, writing correctly, and loss of speech.Many people with progressive aphasia display symptoms of dementia. Issues of memory, reasoning, and judgment may not be obvious at first, but will eventually develop and become more evident over time.
3. Motor Disorder
When the brain area that controls movement is affected, FTD patients will also suffer from neuromotor conditions, impacting thinking and language ability.Dementia and Frontotemporal Dementia Long-Term Prognosis
Qian Zhengping, deputy director of Beitou Health Management Hospital in Taipei, Taiwan, pointed out that the cause of dementia may not only be limited to aging. And not everyone who gets old will have dementia. Dementia is not a disease. Instead, it is a term for a group of symptoms that can be caused by a number of disorders affecting the brain.Studying the underlying causes, dementia is a continuous cognitive decline disorder caused by cerebral nerve disease, systemic diseases, or the use of drugs or addictive substances.
Qian said that dementia might not be detected in the early stage. “If you don’t pay special attention to it, it is easy to be misdiagnosed as normal aging, which can delay medical treatment, causing more difficulty in maintaining dementia conditions.”
Ryoichi Nakahara, a medical doctor at the University of Tokyo in Japan, told The Epoch Times on Mar. 3 that there is no radical cure for frontotemporal dementia, and patients can only take drugs to slow down the symptoms caused by it to improve their quality of life.
Nakahara said: “Generally speaking, a healthy living environment is essential for frontotemporal dementia patients, such as brightness, pleasure, safety, and stability. These criteria may improve patients’ symptoms. Patients can also include some simple aerobic exercises in their daily routine, following regular work and rest schedules, such as bathing, eating, and sleeping at regular hours, to enhance patients’ memory.”