Snowlynne, Thank you for that bit of information.My husband had had 5 mini strokes in the past.I always attributed his problems of Parkinsons , etc to that.

Parkindon's also can be connected to Frontotemperal dementia.

Emma, that was my mothers name.My husband has Parkinsons with Lewey Body Dementia.I am unable to answer your question but will suggest you refer to the sites that have been posted.So many doctor are un familiar with LBD or LBD dementia.

will my husband get the lewy body dementia as hes father has it with parkinson.

Has anybody mentioned this site yet for LBD information.. Lewy-Net

http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/pathology/lewy/lewyhome.html

http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/pathology/lewy/lewyinfo.html



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The subject of LBD is interesting.I have talked to 2 medical professionals who were not familiar with it.One was the male nurse from the VA and the other my aunts nurse.I told them it would benefit them to research it .They both made a note of it and said they would.I want to read the recent articles posted and possiblt refer them

Karen...hope you don't mid me monkeying with the links to get them to work

Instead of fooling with the URL tool in the toolbar...just copying and pasting the link in the message body will work too..it has for me.



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Here is a very good article on LBD. It mentions the beneficial use of cholinesterace inhibitors as well as the warning about neuroleptic sensitivity in patients with this disease.

http://www.dcmsonline.org/jax-medicine/2000journals/February2000/lewybodies.htm

http://www.dcmsonline.org/jax-medicine/2000journals/February2000/lewybodies.htm


Jim Kallio edited this message to get the links to work properly

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Jim Kallio,

Karen,

Your right on the money with the Capgras Symdrome....... This is where I go to look up medical terms..comes out of Great Britian, I think

MediLexicon

http://www.medilexicon.com/
capgras syndrome
<syndrome> A psychotic disorder characterized by the patient's conviction that certain important or familiar persons in his environment are not real but are "doubles" of themselves or imposters.

(12 Dec 1998)

I can umderstand the comment about going to a psychiatrist with these symptoms...though if a Behavioral Neurologist was avaialable locally I might try that first.

You may want to do a search at Medscape for other articles about LBD, I know there are some more. They might be helpful to others here too.



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Thank you Jim, that was an excellent presentation.

I read with great interest the following regarding LBD:

"Looking at the behavioral consequences, this is an autopsy sample of patients with dementia and Lewy bodies. There were very prominent visual hallucinations, quite unlike one sees with other protein accumulation disorders; very prominent delusions; very prominent misidentification syndrome, such as the Capgras's syndrome; and auditory hallucinations, which occur quite commonly in this disorder, as does depression. Therefore, these patients are going to come to psychiatrists because of the tremendous psychiatric burden that this disease and the synucleinopathies, in general, produce in the patient populations."

Mom had (has, but less now) very prominent visual and auditory hallucinations, especially when she is fatigued. I had to look up "Capgras's syndrome", the belief that a family member is an imposter (correct me if I am wrong), and thankfully mom has not shown this behavior (yet). She does however, get 'stuck' on a false belief for weeks on end, for example, my brother's childhood friend who "comes into the house every night and steals things, and messes the house, and he brings his dog in, too". These ongoing delusions aren't always of a sinister nature: currently she is stuck on the belief that my sister who lives 600 miles away has an antique store in town - she even convinced her friend (who is very aware of her dementia and still visits and takes her out to lunch - bless her) to drive her to see the new store! Of course they couldn’t find it.

I hope the diagnosis of LBD is correct, but in any case, we’ll be sure to be very careful about any new medications, especially the anti-psychotics, which, thankfully, we have not had to use. I have read that Parkinson’s disease and associated syndromes are very sensitive to these drugs. It also helps to hear this first-hand from caregivers ((((thank you May))))

There is an interesting discussion of various dementia symptom causing diseases in this recent presentation from Medscape..

Diversity of Neuropsychiatric Impairment: Cognitive and Behavioral Implications
Jeffrey L. Cummings, MD

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/481063_8

Degenerative dementias have abnormal proteins within cells. Every degenerative dementia that we know has a corresponding unique abnormal protein. Moreover, specific cell populations are differentially vulnerable. That is, these diseases don't involve all of the cells of the brain. Rather some proteins accumulate in some cells and they produce Parkinson's disease. Some proteins accumulate in other cells and they produce AD. Some proteins accumulate in other cells and they produce a frontal dementia. So the vulnerability of the cell populations interacting with the specific protein creates the individual disease.

The cell populations within neurological systems share vulnerability-determining features. We have a system of frontal subcortical structures. They're all linked, and they all serve executive function, your planning, deciding, and anticipating. Those are also served by a system of structures. Interestingly enough, all of those systems share the same vulnerability so that functional systems share protein abnormality within the brain. The involved neurological system determines the patient's clinical characteristics.



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I should have signed in

I have been absent from the forum for a while. Mom has been diagnosed with Lewy Body Dementia. She had (still has at times) vivid hallucinations, which have been greatly reduced since she has been on Aricept. She is also on Namenda. She has more trouble with words now, but is less argumentative with Dad. She also has a stooped posture, and some rigidity, but does not have tremors. Her neurologist diagnosed her based upon her symptoms, but she also has many symptoms of AD.