What You Need To Know About Lewy Body Dementia

Symptoms

Symptoms of Lewy body dementia may include apathy, or a loss of motivation; movement disorders, such as rigid muscles, slowed movements, tremors, or a shuffling walk; visual hallucinations, including seeing things that are not really there; and difficulty sleeping. Other symptoms may include depression; disorganized speech; drowsiness; staring off into space for extended periods of time; cognitive problems; confusion, memory loss; reduced attention span; and improper regulation of autonomic body movements, such as the digestive process, sweating, pulse, and blood pressure.

Diagnosis

A Lewy body dementia diagnosis requires a decline in the patient’s ability to think and two of the following: Parkinson’s disease symptoms, progressive visual hallucinations, or impaired cognitive function or fluctuating alertness. Other characteristics of Lewy body dementia that are used to make a diagnosis include REM sleep behaviour disorder and autonomic dysfunction. No single test is used to diagnosis the disease. Instead, a doctor may use tests to rule out other conditions.