Abstract

Background: Dementia is increasingly becoming a major healthcare challenge as the population ages worldwide, with an estimated 25 million cases of dementia globally. The most common cause of dementia is Alzheimer’s disease (AD) which affects approximately 5.4 million individuals in the United States alone. Following the identification of tau gene mutations in familial forms of this disorder, there is increasing interest in genetic factors that may predispose to the disease. About 60% of patients with frontotemporal dementia have no family history of dementia and are considered to be sporadic cases. Genetic factors, such as apolipoprotein E genotype and the H1 haplotype of the tau gene, have been inconsistently associated with the sporadic form of the disease. Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) includes most of these conditions, and is characterized by specific behavioral changes, frontotemporal atrophy on CT or MRI, and the absence of senile plaques and neurofibrillary tangles at postmortem examination. In view of paucity of studies in the said condition, we decided to work on this. This study was designed to find out medical co morbidities in patients of fronto temporal dementia.

Methods: Thirty successive patients diagnosed as FTD who fulfilled inclusion and exclusion criteria were taken up for the study and administered the Clinical Global Impression scale to find out severity of the disorder. Each patient was informed about the purpose of interview; his/her consent was obtained and strict confidentiality was ensured.

Results: Out of hundred cases of amputation, 8 patients had moderate symptoms followed by 15 patients with marked symptoms and remaining 7 patients have severe symptoms. The total sample size of 30 patients, 10 patients had single co morbidity, while as 10 is having two co morbidities and 5 patients had three co morbidities. Rest 5 patients didn’t have any medical co morbidity.

Discussion: In our study, the most common psychiatric co-morbidity was Major Depressive Disorder (53%) followed by with Generalized Anxiety Disorder in 15% and Panic Disorder in 9%.

Keywords: Fronto Temporal Dementia, Co Morbidity, Medical related problems.