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
Case Reports
. 2009 Apr;256(4):600-7.
doi: 10.1007/s00415-009-0128-7. Epub 2009 Apr 9.

Delusions in frontotemporal lobar degeneration

Rohani Omar  1 , Elizabeth L Sampson, Clement T Loy, Catherine J Mummery, Nick C Fox, Martin N Rossor, Jason D Warren
Affiliations
Case Reports

Delusions in frontotemporal lobar degeneration

Rohani Omar et al. J Neurol. 2009 Apr.

Abstract

We assessed the significance and nature of delusions in frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD), an important cause of young-onset dementia with prominent neuropsychiatric features that remain incompletely characterised. The case notes of all patients meeting diagnostic criteria for FTLD attending a tertiary level cognitive disorders clinic over a three year period were retrospectively reviewed and eight patients with a history of delusions were identified. All patients underwent detailed clinical and neuropsychological evaluation and brain MRI. The diagnosis was confirmed pathologically in two cases. The estimated prevalence of delusions was 14%. Delusions were an early, prominent and persistent feature. They were phenomenologically diverse; however paranoid and somatic delusions were prominent. Behavioural variant FTLD was the most frequently associated clinical subtype and cerebral atrophy was bilateral or predominantly right-sided in most cases. We conclude that delusions may be a clinical issue in FTLD, and this should be explored further in future work.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Representative coronal T1-weighted brain MR images from patients in this series, to illustrate the range of anatomical disease patterns (L left side of brain): a) predominantly right temporal lobe atrophy (Case 7); b) predominantly left temporal lobe atrophy (Case 8); c) predominantly right frontotemporal atrophy (Case 6); d) bi-frontotemporal atrophy, more marked on the right (Case 5)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. {'text': '', 'ref_index': 1, 'ids': [{'type': 'PubMed', 'value': '9855500', 'is_inner': True, 'url': 'https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9855500/'}]}
    2. Neary D, Snowden JS, Gustafson L, Passant U, Stuss D, Black S, Freedman M, Kertesz A, Robert PH, Albert M, Boone K, Miller BL, Cummings J, Benson DF (1998) Frontotemporal lobar degeneration: a consensus on clinical diagnostic criteria. Neurology 51:1546–1554 - PubMed
    1. {'text': '', 'ref_index': 1, 'ids': [{'type': 'DOI', 'value': '10.1001/archneur.58.11.1803', 'is_inner': False, 'url': 'https://doi.org/10.1001/archneur.58.11.1803'}, {'type': 'PubMed', 'value': '11708987', 'is_inner': True, 'url': 'https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11708987/'}]}
    2. McKhann GM, Albert MS, Grossman M, Miller B, Dickson D, Trojanowski JQ (2001) Clinical and pathological diagnosis of frontotemporal dementia. Arch Neurol 58:1803–1809 - PubMed
    1. {'text': '', 'ref_index': 1, 'ids': [{'type': 'DOI', 'value': '10.1002/ana.92', 'is_inner': False, 'url': 'https://doi.org/10.1002/ana.92'}, {'type': 'PubMed', 'value': '11310620', 'is_inner': True, 'url': 'https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11310620/'}]}
    2. Chan D, Fox NC, Scahill RI, Crum WR, Whitwell JL, Leschziner G, Rossor AM, Stevens JM, Cipolotti L, Rossor MN (2001) Patterns of temporal lobe atrophy in semantic dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. Ann Neurol 49:433–442 - PubMed
    1. {'text': '', 'ref_index': 1, 'ids': [{'type': 'PubMed', 'value': '11805245', 'is_inner': True, 'url': 'https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11805245/'}]}
    2. Rosen HJ, Gorno-Tempini ML, Goldman WP, Perry RJ, Schuff N, Weiner M, Feiwell R, Kramer JH, Miller BL (2002) Patterns of brain atrophy in frontotemporal dementia and semantic dementia. Neurology 58:198–208 - PubMed
    1. {'text': '', 'ref_index': 1, 'ids': [{'type': 'DOI', 'value': '10.1097/WAD.0b013e31815d19fe', 'is_inner': False, 'url': 'https://doi.org/10.1097/wad.0b013e31815d19fe'}, {'type': 'PubMed', 'value': '18090419', 'is_inner': True, 'url': 'https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18090419/'}]}
    2. Ogar JM, Dronkers NF, Brambati SM, Miller BL, Gorno-Tempini ML (2007) Progressive nonfluent aphasia and its characteristic motor speech deficits. Alzheimer Dis Assoc Disord 21:S23–S30 - PubMed

Publication types