Understanding Frontotemporal Dementia
Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD)
Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD) is a complex neurodegenerative disease and a common cause of young-onset dementia. Unlike Alzheimer’s disease, which presents with deficits in memory and orientation, FTD is characterized clinically by changes in behavior, personality, language, and executive functions. FTD presents a diverse range of symptoms, making it a challenge to diagnose accurately. One of the hallmarks of FTD is a progressive loss of social cognition, which is defined as the abilities needed to participate and communicate effectively in social situations. Other symptoms include apathy, loss of empathy, disinhibition, compulsions, and hyperorality. The underlying neurodegenerative pathology mainly consists of either tau-protein or TDP-43 accumulations in the frontal and/or temporal lobes, reflected by the presence of frontotemporal atrophy on neuroimaging.
Treatment Options
Currently, there is no cure for FTD, and treatment mainly focuses on managing (behavioral) symptoms and enhancing the patient’s quality of life. However, for psychiatric diagnoses, disease-modifying interventions do exist. Accurate and reliable distinction between FTD and psychiatric disorders early in the disease course therefore, is pivotal.
Diagnostic Challenges
The current diagnostic landscape includes diverse testing modalities (i.e. behavioral and neuropsychological assessment, (social) cognitive test batteries, neuroimaging, blood and CSF biomarkers, and genetic testing). Since a golden diagnostic standard does not exist yet, the diagnosis of FTD is currently dependent on clinical consensus criteria. This can be challenging considering the highly heterogeneous nature of the disease, limited accuracy of neuroimaging in early stages, and clinical overlap with neurodegenerative and psychiatric disease, leading to misdiagnosing or diagnostic delay. A key objective of NIC-FTD is to improve diagnostic accuracy in differentiating FTD from psychiatric diseases.
Exploring FTD with NIC-FTD
NIC-FTD is committed to tackling the complexities of FTD head-on. By collaborating internationally and pooling our resources, we are making progress in understanding FTD’s underlying mechanisms, developing accurate diagnostic tools, and formulating recommendations for the best clinical practice.