Degenerative dementia of the frontal type - Clinical evidence from 9 cases

The retrospective neurological, neuroradiological and neuropsychological ob servation of 9 cases of dementia with frontal symptoms is reported. Aim of this paper is to contribute to the clinical corpus of data related to the f rontal features of the frontotemporal dementia (FTD) syndrome, so as to sup port clinicians' awareness and widen the information available for the diag nostic approach to the dementias. FTD is a clinical diagnosis which does no t imply a single underlying pathology, since more than one condition can in duce the syndrome. Inertia and behavioural symptoms were the traits charact erizing both the onset and the progression of the disease in our patients. Progression brought to the surface behavioural and neuropsychological patte rns generically traced back to frontal dysfunction, Social inadequacy was t he most salient trait. From a clinical point of view frontal dementias may be regarded as a conceptually different type of dementia with respect to Al zheimer's disease, i.e., a 'behavioural' as opposed to a 'cognitive' progre ssive disorder.