Alzheimer's disease

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• May 7, 2008 7:41 p.m.

  My husband was diagnosed with FTD 5 years ago, his behavior was so impulsive and his personality completely change and he started acting out. The physician put him on Risperdone. The medication has helped, buthe is certainly not the person he used to be.

  - Susan

• April 23, 2008 11:06 p.m.

  I am wondering if FTD could cause a person to sexually abuse a child. Has anyone had an experience like this?

  - Diane

• March 14, 2008 6:15 a.m.

  My husband, 66, is now in a nursing home, undiagnosed but seems to fit FTD/MND. He also drank CocaCola all day long. Interesting. And suffered chronic back pain all his life and severe leg pain that last few years, progressing through the hierarchy of pain meds. Fell into a coma one night and came out of that but never recovered enough to live at home again. The disease is now progressing rapidly; aphasia, unable to swallow, profound muscle weakness.

  - Christina

• March 5, 2008 6:43 a.m.

  My husband was been diagnosed with FTD three years ago. He is now 58 years old. I have been caring for him full-time for the last 2 1/2 years and I feel lucky that I am able to. He was the funniest, most charming and caring man you'd ever meet. Now that his body holds one of the most horrific diseases we could have ever imagined, I have made arrangements for his brain to be donated for research at the VA/University of Wisconsin brain bank and they will preform an autopsy for us. We all are dealing with the terrible cognitive losses, the uncharacteristic behaviors and the grief of watching our loved one steadily decline. I feel the brain donation is the greatest gift, but it's a way to fight back, too.

  - Jeanne from Wisconsin

• February 18, 2008 10:23 a.m.

  My father has just been dignanosed with ftd. They tell us that in six months if he has any of the front part of his brain it will be a miracle. Will he be able to survive with only the back part of his brain. We have gone through some stages of not knowing immeiated family and aggressive behavior. He has sever pain in his legs. He has short term headaches. The doctors tells us that they will only try to keep him comfortable. He was also diagnosis with spinal stonsis back years ago. We feel now that he may be in final stages.

  - Lisa

• November 28, 2007 4:11 p.m.

  To Dolores: sorry I did not get back to you sooner, my husband is on Aricept 10M, Risperidone .5mg twice a day, citalopram 20mg and at night trazodone 100mg.

  - Kathleen

• November 14, 2007 6:14 p.m.

  Referring to Kathleen's comment My husband has frontaltemporal lobe degeneration. What dementia type medications does your husband take to help him cope?

  - Dolores

• October 14, 2007 10:18 p.m.

  This is off-topic, but I have request for ocnversation: My mother was dianosed with dimentia years ago, at age 52. She's now 60 and in the late stages of what we believe is Early On-Set Alzheimer's. The doctors always had difficultly diagnosing her for some reason. I recently read a news article about sodium benzoate (in soda and many processed foods), that it has been linked to the development of Parkinson's and some cancers. I wonder, have studies been done on Alzheimer's and sodium benzoate? Or, have any of you had family members who developed dimentia or Alzheimer's and also drank a lot of soda. My family has been trying to pinpoint something that could have spurred the early on-set of the disease. Of course, we're not doctors or researchers, but we always wondered if the chemicals in soda could have contributed. She drank tons of Diet Pepsi but was otherwise pretty healthy. Of course, there's always the genetic connection... but I thought I'd bring it up.

  - Felicia

• October 12, 2007 8:08 p.m.

  My husband died recently after a 2 year bout with a Dementia Non-specific diagnosis. His symptoms were dystonia and akathesia like muscle spasms, impaired memory, difficulty swallowing, and some rigidity of his arms. His ability to reason seemed always relatively unimpaired, although he could not express himself well. He always knew those persons important to him. He died after aspirating food and developing lung congestion. He was only ill for 4 months prior to his death, although he had been diagnosed 2 years earlier. i'm still wondering if he was misdiagnosed, and suffered from an agitated depression, and developed dyskinesthias associated with anipsychotic drugs.

  - Maryon MacRae

• October 10, 2007 9:00 p.m.

  Several of the news reports about Sen. Domenici's frontotemporal dementia (FTD)diagnosis said for a year his leg/back were hurting him, so doctors thought it was spinal stenosis, but then his spinal specialist sent him to a neurologist who diagnosed FTD. I am wondering what in the world back and leg pain could have to do with FTD. Does that mean it never was spinal stenosis? I understand the two conditions can co-occur. Has anyone heard of FTD manifesting with chronic leg/back pain symptoms? I ask because my father, 73 yrs old, who likely has FTD, has had chronic back/leg pain for probably more than 15 years. It has been a huge problem in his life. He's had multiple surgeries and been on a succession of narcotic pain meds over the years. The meds probably masked or were blamed for early signs of FTD.

  - Bea

• October 10, 2007 2:30 p.m.

  To Anon. My husband has frontal temporal lobe dementia also, his behaviour and energy patterns are very different - he is agressive, can't reason, acts like a five year old and has taken a big attraction to children (he never bothered much with his own when he had them - so this is very different). He has difficulty putting the correct words in a sentence although he knows in his head what he wants to say. He is in the moderate stage and he was diagnosed at age 68 officially but I noticed signs of funny behaviour about two years before that. A good geratric specialist and proper medication will make it easier for you to live with your mom as she becomes more aggressive and demanding. My husband is reasonably healthy and still goes to lawn bowls and plays curling but his behaviour is bizarre at times.

  - Kathleen

• October 9, 2007 7:30 p.m.

  My mother had what was first called "Early Altzheimers" but it progressed differently. We were told it was a frontal lobe dementia. At her death, age 62, her brain was examined and the disease was determined as Picks disease. How does this relate to FTD?

  - anon