#NewsBytesExplainer: What's frontotemporal dementia? The disease Bruce Willis is battling
What's the story
Die Hard and The Sixth Sense actor Bruce Willis has been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia (FTD), an untreatable disease that usually impacts people aged 45-65.
Last year, Willis's family also announced via social media that the Hollywood veteran is battling aphasia, a disorder that mars one's communication and cognitive skills.
Here's everything you need to know about FTD.
Definition and meaning
FTD attacks the brain's frontal and temporal lobes
Per The Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration's website, "FTD is likely to affect one's personality, behavior, language, and movement, due to the specific areas of the brain affected (frontal and temporal lobes)."
The website also says, "FTD is the most common dementia for people under 60, although it can also affect those in their 60s, 70s, or beyond."
There are no approved treatments or cures.
Subtypes
FTD comes with multiple subtypes that impact patients differently
The website also talks about FTD's subtypes.
While the behavioral variant of FTD causes the patient to "act uncharacteristically, develop unusual or compulsive habits, and experience issues in problem-solving or decision-making," primary progressive aphasia, the language variant of FTD, "affects communication."
PPA patients "struggle to speak and/or understand written and spoken language."
Other subtypes—such as progressive supranuclear palsy and corticobasal syndrome—largely restrict one's movement.
Symptoms
What are the disease's many symptoms?
Per Mayo Clinic, the symptoms of the disease are varied.
Loss of empathy and judgment abilities, apathy, compulsive behavior, ignorance of personal hygiene, changed eating schedules, overeating and binging on sweets and carbohydrates, trying to eat inedible objects, and wanting to put things in one's mouth are some major problems FTD patients struggle with.
Speech, cognitive, comprehension, and motor skills also break down.
Statistics
Let's understand the disease through numbers
Per TAFD, "An estimated 50,000 to 60,000 people in the US have been diagnosed with an FTD disorder."
"It takes 3.6 years following the first appearance of symptoms to obtain a diagnosis," the website adds.
Moreover, per a report published in Neurology India, "In a clinic-based study from South India, FTD (18.7%) was found to be one of the major causes of primary dementias."
The way ahead
Will there ever be a solution to this affliction?
TAFD remains hopeful about the debilitating disease's cure in the coming decades.
It says, "While there is no cure today, there are many reasons for hope in the future, including increasing awareness, greater advocacy, and important recent strides in research. Currently, researchers are [working on] at least six clinical trials for disease-modifying drugs; that number will grow as greater attention is paid to FTD."