What is lewy body dementia?

The essentials: Lewey body dementia is defined by three things, visual hallucinations in the absence of othr drugs, psych diagnoses and Parkinson's disease, memory loss and perodic confusion, you can have parkinson symptoms but dont have to. You also usually get behavorial problems and executive problems. The hallucinations tend to be quite vivid and complex.

Brief Details.......: Neurodegenerative d/o featuring milder physical parkinsonism than parkinson's disease typically. (slowed movements, stiff/rigid muscles & posture, possibly resting tremor). But with early dementia, often with associated psychosis (visual hallucinations, delusional thoughts), excessive sleepiness, depression/anxiety/apathy, & rbd. Rbd = rem behavior d/o, causing acting-out of dreams in rem sleep.

Dementia: Dementia with lewy bodies is a leading cause of dementia and people with this have abnormal protein structures in certain parts of the brain. Has similarities with both alzheimer's disease and parkinson's disease. Here's a good starting point for your research: http://sgoti.Ws/tqtza9.

Rapid Onset: Lewy body dementia is a type of brain disease where both cholinergic and dopaminergic neurons are destroyed causing impairment in cognitive and motor abilities. Lewy bodies, clumps of proteins, can be seen in the brain at autopsy. This dementia usually progresses faster than other dementias and is very sensitive to antipsychotic medications. Often confused with alzheimer's or parkinson's disease.

Lewy body diagnosis: Best distinguished from the other dementias by the presence of parkinsonian symptoms including rigidity, dysphagia (trouble swallowing), altered gait, and tremor. Also, early on rather than later, psychotic symptoms may be prominent. Unfortunately, these patients do not tolerate antipsychotics very well. Namenda (memantine) - and maybe aricept- can provide relief. Biopsy or new scan sdefinititively diagnos.