New diagnostic criteria shine light on early dementia mimics

Date:
August 17, 2020
Source:
University of Bristol
Summary:
Experts estimate up to one third of people attending specialist
memory clinics in the UK could have a condition that is commonly
mistaken for early dementia. I


FULL STORY ========================================================================== Experts estimate up to one third of people attending specialist memory
clinics could have a condition that is commonly mistaken for early
dementia.


==========================================================================
In a paper published in the journal, Brain, UK academics and clinicians
have collaborated to develop a diagnostic definition of the widely
recognised but poorly understood condition, Functional Cognitive Disorder (FCD).

Dr Harriet Ball from the University of Bristol, first author of the
paper, said providing diagnostic criteria was an incredibly important
step toward improving diagnosis, management and research into FCD and
other cognitive disorders.

"Dysfunction of day-to-day thinking processes is a feature of FCD but
it is often misdiagnosed as early dementia. We estimate up to a third of
people attending specialist memory clinics have FCD. While FCD involves impairment of thinking processes, unlike dementia, it is not expected
to progress. From a patient's point of view, that is a very different
prognosis and one that requires different management.

"As clinicians, our aim is to unravel the causes of early memory symptoms,
and importantly, identify those that can improve over time rather than deteriorate towards dementia. Having clear diagnostic criteria for FCD
will enable us to better characterise the condition and better explain
it -- and its prognosis - - to patients and their families," said Dr Ball.

The position paper: Functional cognitive disorder: dementia's blind
spot is the collaborative effort of 25 of the UK's leading experts on
the topic and represents the first agreed clinical definition of FCD.

This definition will allow a new phase of research into FCD as researchers
can now consistently identify patients for studies. The next stage for
this work, which has already begun, involves assessing clinical markers
and understanding the epidemiology, all of which will help to build
treatment studies.

"While some people do spontaneously recover, this is often related to how
long it has gone on for and how entrenched it has become. Treatment up to
now has focused on management of aspects that we know can help in general,
for example cutting down medications that might be making things worse,
working on better sleep patterns; but in future we'd like to test specific cognitive therapies which could prove much more successful," said Dr Ball.

Dr Ball said the definition also had important benefits in terms of strengthening research into dementia.

"With a clear operational definition, we'll be better at picking the
right people for trials against, for example, Alzheimer's proteins --
because if lots of people with FCD are in those trials, it is much harder
to show any treatment effect against Alzheimer's."

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_Bristol. Note: Content
may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Harriet A Ball, Laura McWhirter, Clive Ballard, Rohan Bhome,
Daniel J
Blackburn, Mark J Edwards, Stephen M Fleming, Nick C Fox, Robert
Howard, Jonathan Huntley, Jeremy D Isaacs, Andrew J Larner, Timothy
R Nicholson, Catherine M Pennington, Norman Poole, Gary Price,
Jason P Price, Markus Reuber, Craig Ritchie, Martin N Rossor,
Jonathan M Schott, Tiago Teodoro, Annalena Venneri, Jon Stone,
Alan J Carson. Functional cognitive disorder: dementia's blind
spot. Brain, 2020; DOI: 10.1093/brain/awaa224 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/08/200817104331.htm

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