Trajectories of behavior and social cognition in behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia and primary psychiatric disorders: A call for better operationalization of socioemotional changes.

Background And Purpose: Behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) and primary psychiatric disorders (PPD), such as mood, psychotic, and autism spectrum disorders, share similar clinical characteristics of behavior and social cognition. Better understanding of clinical progression in bvFTD and PPD is essential for adequate disease monitoring and trial design.

Methods: In this longitudinal study (N = 89), patients with bvFTD and PPD with at least one follow-up assessment were included from the Social Brain Project of the Alzheimer Center Amsterdam.

Decreased emotion recognition and reduced focus on facial hallmarks in behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia compared to primary psychiatric disorders and controls.

Background And Purpose: Early diagnosis of behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) is challenging due to symptomatic overlap with primary psychiatric disorders (PPD). As emotion recognition deficits are early and key features of bvFTD, the aim was to explore processes driving social cognition deficits that may aid in the differentiation between bvFTD and PPD.

Methods: The total sample (N = 51) included 18 patients with bvFTD, 11 patients with PPD (mood, autism spectrum and psychotic disorders) and 22 controls from the Alzheimer Center Amsterdam of the Amsterdam UMC.

[Frontotemporal dementia diagnoses within the psychiatric practice: pitfalls and practical tools].

Background: The behavioural variant of frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) strongly resembles primary psychiatric disorders. Furthermore, a bvFTD mimic may occur, without neurodegenerative aetiology.

Aim: To offer psychiatrist clinical tools for making or ruling out a bvFTD diagnosis.

Design guidance for video chat system to support social engagement for older adults with and without mild cognitive impairment.

Background: Social engagement technologies offer an opportunity to reduce social isolation. However, there are barriers to adoption among older adults with and without Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI). Technology designed to meet the needs of those users may improve the acceptability, adoption, and benefits of social engagement technology.

Metabolic syndrome rates in older patients with severe mental illness after five years of follow-up and the association with mortality.

Objectives: To establish the course of metabolic syndrome (MS) rates in older patients with severe mental illness (SMI) after 5-year follow-up and evaluate whether MS at baseline is associated with mortality or diabetes at follow-up.

Methods: Patients (>60 years of age) with SMI (N = 100) were included at a specialized mental health outpatient clinic. Metabolic parameters were collected from patients' medical files at baseline and after 5-year follow-up.

The Diagnostic Challenge of the Late-Onset Frontal Lobe Syndrome: Clinical Predictors for Primary Psychiatric Disorders Versus Behavioral Variant Frontotemporal Dementia.

Objective: Primary psychiatric disorders (PsD) can present with symptomatology identical to that of behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD). To date, clinical guidelines do not provide a solution for this diagnostic challenge. The aim of our study was to prospectively determine which demographic, clinical, neuropsychological, neuroimaging, and cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers are important in distinguishing PsD from bvFTD.

The Pitfall of Behavioral Variant Frontotemporal Dementia Mimics Despite Multidisciplinary Application of the FTDC Criteria.

Background: The behavioral variant of frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) has a broad differential diagnosis including other neurological and psychiatric disorders. Psychiatric misdiagnoses occur in up to 50% of bvFTD patients. Numbers on misdiagnosis of bvFTD in psychiatric disorders are lacking.

Cerebrospinal fluid biomarker examination as a tool to discriminate behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia from primary psychiatric disorders.

Introduction: To prospectively determine the diagnostic value of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) levels total-tau (tau) to amyloid-β ratio (Aβ) ratio (tau/Aβ ratio), phosphorylated-tau (p-tau) to tau ratio (p-tau/tau ratio), neurofilament light chain (NfL) and YKL40 in the late-onset frontal lobe syndrome, in particular for the differential diagnosis of behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) versus primary psychiatric disorders (PSY).

Method: We included patients with a multidisciplinary 2-year-follow-up diagnosis of probable/definite bvFTD ( = 22) or PSY ( = 25), who underwent a detailed neuropsychiatric clinical examination, neuropsychological test battery, and magnetic resonance imaging at baseline. In all cases, CSF was collected through lumbar puncture at baseline.

Diagnostic Accuracy of MRI and Additional [18F]FDG-PET for Behavioral Variant Frontotemporal Dementia in Patients with Late Onset Behavioral Changes.

Background: Neuroimaging has a reasonable accuracy to differentiate behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) from other neurodegenerative disorders, its value for the differentiation of bvFTD among subjects with acquired behavioral disturbances is unknown.

Objective: To determine the diagnostic accuracy of MRI, additional [18F]FDG-PET, and their combination for bvFTD among subjects with late onset behavioral changes.

Methods: Patients with late onset behavioral changes referred to a memory clinic or psychiatric services were included.

Schizophrenia as a mimic of behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia.

Recently, the diagnostic criteria for the behavioral variant of frontotemporal dementia were revised. Although these criteria offer a relatively high sensitivity, their specificity is yet unknown. We describe a 54-year-old woman fulfilling criteria for both late-onset schizophrenia and probable behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia.

Diagnostic Accuracy of the Frontotemporal Dementia Consensus Criteria in the Late-Onset Frontal Lobe Syndrome.

Background/aims: We aimed to prospectively assess the diagnostic accuracy of the revised criteria for behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) among subjects presenting with a frontal lobe syndrome in middle-late adulthood.

Methods: Patients were included based on a predominant behavioural clinical presentation, a Frontal Behavioural Inventory (FBI) score of ≥11 and/or a Stereotypy Rating Inventory (SRI) score of ≥10. At baseline, the fulfilment of the international consensus criteria for behavioural variant FTD (FTDC) was systematically recorded.

Formal Psychiatric Disorders are not Overrepresented in Behavioral Variant Frontotemporal Dementia.

While psychiatric misdiagnosis is well-known in behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD), a systematic evaluation of standardized criteria for psychiatric disorders in bvFTD is still missing. Our aim was to define frequency and character of DSM-IV psychiatric disorders among patients with probable and definite bvFTD compared to possible bvFTD, other neurodegenerative diseases, and psychiatric diagnoses, using MINI-International Neuropsychiatric Interview. We additionally compared psychiatric prodromes between these groups.

Impact of Imaging and Cerebrospinal Fluid Biomarkers on Behavioral Variant Frontotemporal Dementia Diagnosis within a Late-Onset Frontal Lobe Syndrome Cohort.

Background: The criteria for behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) incorporate MRI and [18F]-FDG-PET. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) analysis is merely advised for excluding Alzheimer's disease.

Aims: We aimed to assess the impact of biomarkers on diagnostic certainty and contingent changes of bvFTD diagnosis within the clinically relevant neuropsychiatric differential diagnosis of subjects with a late-onset frontal lobe syndrome (LOF).

Identifying bvFTD Within the Wide Spectrum of Late Onset Frontal Lobe Syndrome: A Clinical Approach.

Objective: The behavioral variant of frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) can be difficult to diagnose because of the extensive differential diagnosis, including many other diseases presenting with a frontal lobe syndrome. We aimed to identify the diagnostic spectrum causing a late onset frontal lobe syndrome and examine the quality of commonly used instruments to distinguish between bvFTD and non-bvFTD patients, within this syndrome.

Methods: A total of 137 patients fulfilling the criteria of late onset frontal lobe syndrome, aged 45 to 75 years, were included in a prospective observational study.

Psychiatric diagnoses underlying the phenocopy syndrome of behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia.

Introduction: The frontotemporal dementia (FTD) consortium criteria (2011) emphasise the importance of distinguishing possible and probable behavioural variant FTD (bvFTD). A significant number of possible patients with bvFTD do not show functional decline and remain with normal neuroimaging over time, thus exhibiting the bvFTD phenocopy syndrome. A neurodegenerative nature is unlikely but an alternative explanation is missing.

Personalized technology to support older adults with and without cognitive impairment living at home.

Although persons with dementia (PWD) and their family caregivers need in-home support for common neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS), few if any assistive technologies are available to help manage NPS. This implementation study tested the feasibility and adoption of a touch screen technology, the Companion, which delivers psychosocial, nondrug interventions to PWD in their home to address individual NPS and needs. Interventions were personalized and delivered in home for a minimum of 3 weeks.

Managing dementia symptoms and needs using technology.

Dementia is a difficult and costly disease to manage. Although caregivers and patients have indicated they need support for activities of daily living and debilitating neuropsychological symptoms, most technology innovations focus on safety and social contact. This feasibility study tested a care technology designed to manage dementia symptoms and everyday routines using common, nonpharmacological interventions.

[The behavioural variant of frontotemporal dementia: a challenging diagnosis].

We present the case of a 52-year-old man who was diagnosed with the behavioural variant of frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) in accordance with consortium criteria from 1998. The diagnosis was questioned in the years of follow-up, since neuroimaging showed no abnormalities and no deterioration of clinical symptoms was seen. After 3 years, the diagnosis was withdrawn after the psychiatrist concluded that his low intelligence, combined with a cluster C personality and relational problems, had caused his altered behaviour.

Building a new paradigm for the early recognition of behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia: Late Onset Frontal Lobe Syndrome study.

Objective: To describe the aims and design of the ongoing Late Onset Frontal Lobe Syndrome study (LOF study), a study on the spectrum of neurodegenerative and psychiatric etiologies causing behavioral changes in later life, and on the role of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), [(18)F]-fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography (FDG-PET), and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers in predicting and identifying the different underlying pathologies with a special focus on the behavioral variant of frontotemporal dementia.

Methods: The LOF study is an observational cross-sectional and prospective follow-up study. Patients aged 45-75 years with a frontal behavioral change consisting of apathy, disinhibition, or compulsive/stereotypical behavior were included (April 2011-2013).

[Frontotemporal dementia and schizophrenia in later life: a comparison of executive and general cognitive functioning].

Background: Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is characterised clinically by progressive changes in behaviour and personality; these changes are followed by cognitive disorder. FTD needs to be differentiated from other forms of dementia and from psychiatric conditions such as schizophrenia. Both FTD and schizophrenia lead to cognitive disorders and particularly to executive impairments.

Altered local coherence in the default mode network due to sevoflurane anesthesia.

Recently we introduced a robust measure, integrated local correlation (ILC), of local connectivity in the brain using fMRI data which reflects the temporal correlation of brain activity in every voxel neighborhood. The current work studies ILC in fMRI data obtained in the absence and presence of sevoflurane anesthesia (0%, 2%, and 1% end-tidal concentration, respectively) administered to healthy volunteers. ILC was determined specifically in regions of the default mode network (DMN) to address local changes in each state.

Preserved memory function during bispectral index-guided anesthesia with sevoflurane for major orthopedic surgery.

Background: Memory function under anesthesia is undesired but may arise from light hypnosis as well as stress-enhanced learning during surgery. The bispectral index (BIS, Aspect Medical Systems, Norwood, MA) is a monitor of hypnotic state that can help to avoid light hypnosis (i.e.