Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2003 Jan 28;60(2):266-71.
doi: 10.1212/01.wnl.0000041497.07694.d2.

Double dissociation of social functioning in frontotemporal dementia

Katherine P Rankin  1 , Joel H Kramer, Paula Mychack, Bruce L Miller
Affiliations

Double dissociation of social functioning in frontotemporal dementia

Katherine P Rankin et al. Neurology. .

Abstract

Background: Efforts to characterize changes in social functioning in frontotemporal dementia (FTD) have failed to elicit clear dissociation between frontal and temporal variants of the disease based on behavioral measures.

Methods: This study obtained premorbid and current first-degree relative ratings using an established measure of interpersonal functioning, the Interpersonal Adjectives Scales, to measure personality change in 16 patients with frontal variant (FLV) and 13 with temporal variant (TLV) FTD, and in a control group of 16 patients with AD.

Results: All three groups showed significant change over time in multiple domains, including increased introversion (FG) and submissiveness (HI). However, patients with both FTD subtypes evidenced significantly greater increases in overall interpersonal pathology vector length [VL] than did patients with AD, who remained within the normal range on all scores. Patients with FLV showed a 2 SD increase in submissiveness (HI), but their cold-heartedness (DE) change scores were not significantly different from those of patients with AD. Conversely, the TLV cold-heartedness (DE) score increased 2 SD compared to minimal change for the AD and FLV groups, yet change in submissiveness (HI) did not differentiate between AD and TLV groups.

Conclusions: The Interpersonal Adjectives Scales differentiated both FTD groups from patients with AD on the basis of both degree and direction of personality change. Also, the two subtypes of FTD showed distinctly different patterns of change in social functioning: patients with temporal variant shifted toward severe interpersonal coldness with mild loss of dominance, whereas patients with frontal variant showed the opposite pattern.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The Interpersonal Adjectives Scales Interpersonal Circumplex model depicts interpersonal functioning as eight facet scores derived from two main axes: power and affiliation.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Divergent patterns were found among frontal variant frontotemporal dementia (FLV) (black bars), temporal variant frontotemporal dementia (TLV) (gray bars), and AD (white bars) groups on Interpersonal Adjectives Scales (IAS) facet T-scores measuring change from pre-morbid to current interpersonal style.
Figure 3
Figure 3
When Interpersonal Adjectives Scales (IAS) summary scores were used to examine overall personality style, patients with AD, frontal variant frontotemporal dementia (FLV), and temporal variant frontotemporal dementia (TLV) evidenced a significant interaction (p < 0.05). Patients with TLV showed a greater drop in affiliation (black bars) than in social dominance (gray bars), whereas patients with FLV showed the opposite pattern. Both frontotemporal dementia subtypes showed a greater overall degree of change than did AD.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Brun A, Englund B, Gustafson L, et al. Clinical and neuropathological criteria for frontotemporal dementia. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 1994;57:416–418. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Neary D, Snowden JS, Gustafson L, et al. Frontotemporal lobar degeneration: a consensus on clinical diagnostic criteria. Neurology. 1998;51:1546–1554. - PubMed
    1. Edwards-Lee T, Miller BL, Benson DF, et al. The temporal variant of frontotemporal dementia. Brain. 1997;120:1027–1040. - PubMed
    1. Gregory CA, Hodges JR. Dementia of frontal type and the focal lobar atrophies. Int Rev Psychiatry. 1993;5:397–406.
    1. Bozeat S, Gregory CA, Ralph MA, Hodges JR. Which neuropsychiatric and behavioural features distinguish frontal and temporal variants of frontotemporal dementia from Alzheimer’s disease? J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 2000;69:178–186. - PMC - PubMed