University College London | bvFTD1-what_is_bvFTD-SD

Frontotemporal dementia, or FTD, is one of the causes of dementia. So people often equate dementia with
Alzheimer's disease, but in fact, there are many, many different causes, some of which are neurodegenerative,
where brain cells die for a number of reasons, genetic or otherwise, that often we don't know the cause of.
Alzheimer's disease is the most common, accounting for the vast proportion, more than 50%, 60% of people in the
over 65 age bracket. In the under 65, a number of less common causes are relatively more important, in
numerical terms. And frontotemporal dementia is probably the second most common cause of dementia in the
under 65s.
Pick's disease is a term that is often used for frontotemporal dementia. Pick described frontotemporal dementia in
the 1900s, and so it acquired his name. But over the years, it's become known more as frontotemporal dementia.
So we tend to use those terms interchangeably. So Pick's disease equals frontotemporal dementia. But
nowadays, we've gone on to start using the term frontotemporal dementia.
It's called frontotemporal dementia because of the frontal and temporal lobes. They're the two lobes of the brain
right at the front, and they control some specific functions. So they control behaviour and also language. So those
are the two main problems that we see in people with FTD, so either presenting with a change in their behaviour,
a change in their personality, or on the other hand, a change in their language.
BVFTD, or behavioural variant FTD, got a number of different names, sometimes called the frontal variant of FTD,
because it's thought to affect right at the very front part of the brain. So in that particular condition, there tends to
be a very slowly progressive change in personality or the development of behavioural symptoms.