Frontotemporal Dementia

Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is a group of degenerative diseases that gradually damage or shrink the front of the brain — the frontal and anterior temporal lobes. These two areas are the center of many important brain functions, including language skills as well as the ability to focus attention, make plans and decisions and control impulses.

Symptoms often relate to personality or mood changes, compulsive or repetitive behavior and lack of emotion, inhibition or social tact.

The team at the UCSF Memory and Aging Center is one of the few centers in the country specializing in the diagnosis, treatment and research of frontotemporal dementia. FTD includes frontotemporal lobar degeneration, Pick's Disease, progressive aphasia and semantic dementia.

FTD affects an estimated 250,000 Americans, with the average duration of the disease about eight years. In the past, the disease was confused with Alzheimer's disease or other forms of dementia. But unlike Alzheimer's disease, frontotemporal dementia appears earlier in life. As researchers have learned more about the disease, they now believe it is the second leading cause of dementia in middle age. Most cases are diagnosed during the 50s and 60s with men and women equally affected.

About 40 percent of patients have a clear-cut family history. The remaining 60 percent of cases occur sporadically. If a parent has frontotemporal dementia, one in two of the children are likely to develop the disease. In some cases where the disorder appears to be inherited, there is an apparent change or mutation in a gene on chromosome 3, 9 or 17. Other genes may be involved as well. However, the cause of the illness is unknown.

See books recommended by the UCSF Memory and Aging Center.

Reviewed by health care specialists at UCSF Medical Center.
Last updated February 14, 2008