Care in Midstream - Library

Frontotemporal Dementia – Signs & Symptoms

Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is the fifth most common cause of dementia. It affects the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain. It is sometimes called frontal lobe dementia and used to be known as Pick’s disease. The affected areas of the brain control personality, emotions, behaviour, executive functioning, and speech. FTD tends to start at younger ages. At first, frontotemporal disorders leave other brain regions untouched, including those that control short-term memory.

Diagnosing frontotemporal dementia

There isn’t a single test that explicitly diagnoses FTD. Doctors must try to identify specific characteristics while ruling out other possible causes, like liver or kidney disease. 

Diagnosing in the early stages can be challenging because the symptoms often overlap with those of other conditions.

Signs and symptoms of frontotemporal dementia

The most common signs and symptoms of frontotemporal dementia are extreme changes in behaviour and personality. People typically have one type of symptom in the early stages of FTD. As the disease progresses, more symptoms will appear as more parts of the brain are affected.

Common behavioural and personality symptoms include changes in personality and mood, avoiding socialising or being unwilling to talk, repetitive or obsessive behaviour, lack of inhibition or lack of social tact, a decline in personal hygiene, lack of judgment, apathy, lack of awareness, loss of empathy, changes in eating habits, and putting things in the mouth or trying to eat inedible objects

People with FTD can usually keep track of day-to-day events and understand what’s happening around them; they typically keep their language skills and memory until late in the disease.

Typical speech and language symptoms include difficulty finding the right word or calling objects by the correct name, trouble with reading and writing, losing the ability to understand or put together words in a spoken sentence, and speaking in a very hesitant or ungrammatical way. Common movement symptoms include tremors, rigid muscles, muscle spasms or weakness, poor coordination and difficulty swallowing.

The difference between Alzheimer's and frontotemporal dementia (FTD)

  • Most people with frontotemporal dementia are diagnosed between ages 45 and 65. The majority of Alzheimer’s cases happen in people over age 65.
  • With FTD, problems with memory may show up in advanced stages. In Alzheimer’s, memory problems show up early in the disease and tend to be a more prominent symptom.
  • Changes in behaviour are an early sign of FTD and often are the first noticeable symptoms. Behaviour changes are also common as Alzheimer’s progresses, but they usually occur later in the disease.
  • Problems with spatial orientation (like getting lost in familiar places) are more common with Alzheimer’s than with FTD.
  • Hallucinations and delusions are also more common as Alzheimer’s progresses, but not very common in FTD.
  • People who have FTD often have more problems speaking, understanding speech, and reading than people with Alzheimer’s.