Hope and Help for Dementia With Lewy Body
Medscape
5,325 views
Neurologists Kathrin LaFaver and Melissa Armstrong discuss the SHIMMER trial of a novel drug for DLB and the unique challenges of this dementia vs Alzheimer’s dementia.
https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/...
-- TRANSCRIPT --
Kathrin LaFaver, MD: Hello. My name is Dr Kathrin LaFaver. I’m a neurologist in Saratoga Springs, New York. Today, I have the great pleasure of talking to Dr Melissa Armstrong about Lewy body dementia updates.
Dr Armstrong is a professor of neurology and the director of the University of Florida Health Mangurian Clinical-Research Headquarters for Lewy Body Dementia. Welcome, Dr Armstrong.
Melissa J. Armstrong, MD, MSc: Thank you so much.
LaFaver: In the past couple of years, there have been many updates for neurodegenerative disorders in general, and the main focus has been on Alzheimer’s disease. As we all know, there’s been the advent of amyloid-targeting antibody therapies, which have been controversial but also very exciting.
Today, I thought we would take some time to also look at the second most common dementia and see what updates there are in Lewy body dementia.
Armstrong: That’s great.
Dementia With Lewy Body vs Alzheimer’s
LaFaver: Maybe to get us started, for our colleagues in general neurology or even primary care, who don’t see Lewy body dementia every day, can you remind us what some of the key differences are compared with Alzheimer’s dementia?
Armstrong: One of the first things I always like to make note of is that the term “Lewy body dementia” includes dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), when someone has memory and thinking problems right up front. It can also include Parkinson’s disease dementia, where people start with that more classic physical Parkinson’s presentation and then go on to develop memory and thinking problems, too.
When we think about the memory and thinking problems in Lewy body dementia, they’re often a little bit different from Alzheimer’s disease. In classic Alzheimer’s disease, we think about memory problems, people repeating themselves, and asking the same question again and again.
In the Lewy body dementias, people often have more trouble with things like paying attention, executive function, higher-level reasoning, and visual-spatial problems that might affect them when driving, for example.
When we think about the noncognitive symptoms, people with DLB and also with Parkinson’s disease can have other symptoms that are helpful, too. They can have these fluctuations, or these ups and downs, where one moment they seem really clear and the next moment they’re really confused over minutes or hours.
Transcript in its entirety can be found by clicking here:
https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/...
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Hope and Help for Dementia With Lewy Body
Medscape
5,325 views
Neurologists Kathrin LaFaver and Melissa Armstrong discuss the SHIMMER trial of a novel drug for DLB and the unique challenges of this dementia vs Alzheimer’s dementia.
https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/...
-- TRANSCRIPT --
Kathrin LaFaver, MD: Hello. My name is Dr Kathrin LaFaver. I’m a neurologist in Saratoga Springs, New York. Today, I have the great pleasure of talking to Dr Melissa Armstrong about Lewy body dementia updates.
Dr Armstrong is a professor of neurology and the director of the University of Florida Health Mangurian Clinical-Research Headquarters for Lewy Body Dementia. Welcome, Dr Armstrong.
Melissa J. Armstrong, MD, MSc: Thank you so much.
LaFaver: In the past couple of years, there have been many updates for neurodegenerative disorders in general, and the main focus has been on Alzheimer’s disease. As we all know, there’s been the advent of amyloid-targeting antibody therapies, which have been controversial but also very exciting.
Today, I thought we would take some time to also look at the second most common dementia and see what updates there are in Lewy body dementia.
Armstrong: That’s great.
Dementia With Lewy Body vs Alzheimer’s
LaFaver: Maybe to get us started, for our colleagues in general neurology or even primary care, who don’t see Lewy body dementia every day, can you remind us what some of the key differences are compared with Alzheimer’s dementia?
Armstrong: One of the first things I always like to make note of is that the term “Lewy body dementia” includes dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), when someone has memory and thinking problems right up front. It can also include Parkinson’s disease dementia, where people start with that more classic physical Parkinson’s presentation and then go on to develop memory and thinking problems, too.
When we think about the memory and thinking problems in Lewy body dementia, they’re often a little bit different from Alzheimer’s disease. In classic Alzheimer’s disease, we think about memory problems, people repeating themselves, and asking the same question again and again.
In the Lewy body dementias, people often have more trouble with things like paying attention, executive function, higher-level reasoning, and visual-spatial problems that might affect them when driving, for example.
When we think about the noncognitive symptoms, people with DLB and also with Parkinson’s disease can have other symptoms that are helpful, too. They can have these fluctuations, or these ups and downs, where one moment they seem really clear and the next moment they’re really confused over minutes or hours.
Transcript in its entirety can be found by clicking here:
https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/...