How To Spot Pick's Disease (Frontotemporal Dementia)

Compulsive Behavior

Patients with Pick’s disease often also develop obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). In addition to compulsive behavior, OCD is also characterized by repetitive and unwanted thoughts and feelings. Obsessive-compulsive disorder can persist throughout a patient’s life, or it can appear at a relatively late age. Researchers have found links between the latter type and dementia. For example, scientists at the 2016 American Academy of Neurology Annual Meeting reported sixty-five percent of patients with frontotemporal dementia had developed obsessive-compulsive disorder or some symptoms of it before developing dementia.

They also reported patients who had developed OCD relatively late in life were more likely to develop a type of dementia than individuals who developed it at an early age. Obsessive-compulsive disorder is also often linked to anxiety, and many dementia patients feel anxious and out of control. Their obsessive rituals may also help them remember given tasks in self-care.

Depression-Like Symptoms

A specific study was done to better understand the nature of the symptoms of depression in the early stages of Pick’s disease and how it affects a patient’s rapidly changing neurology. The patients surveyed for this study were originally treated for major depressive disorders before being clinically diagnosed with Pick’s disease. Majority of the patients displayed signs of depression associated with Pick’s disease such as social isolation and withdrawal, slowing down of thought processes and a reduction in physical movements by the patient, agitation, hastily making decisions, and anxiety. Only a few of the patients displayed melancholia and physical symptoms such as insomnia and loss of appetite.

Besides the study, Pick’s disease and depression have many of the same symptoms such as difficulty concentrating and making decisions, memory loss, irritability, restlessness, and a loss of interest in daily life. Considering many of the symptoms of both conditions tend to cross paths, diagnosing Pick’s disease or depression in an older individual can be tricky for doctors, and numerous tests may take place for a proper diagnosis.