I received lots of texts and emails today on the latest in the Robin Williams – Lewy Body Dementia story.
His widow was interviewed today and indicates that LBD, not depression, killed her husband.
Here’s an excerpt from a Washington Post article about the interview news anchor Amy Robach did this morning with Susan Schneider Williams:
Robach explained that Robin Williams’s autopsy revealed he was suffering from Lewy body dementia, a debilitating brain disorder. “Most people think your husband killed himself because he was depressed,” Robach said. “No, Lewy body dementia killed Robin,” Susan Williams said. “It’s what took his life. And that’s what I’ve spent the last year trying to get to the bottom of: what took my husband’s life.” The week of his death, Williams, 63, was scheduled to go to a facility for neurocognitive testing. But the dementia, combined with the Parkinson’s diagnosis, was causing him serious, unmanageable pain.
And here’s an excerpt from a New York Times article:
Robin Williams had not been diagnosed with LBD while alive. It was only diagnosed after a brain autopsy was performed.
I’ll copy below the links to the two newspaper articles referred to above.
- Washington Post article: www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2015/11/03/robin-williamss-widow-talks-about-the-actors-final-days-lewy-body-dementia-killed-robin/
- New York Times article: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/04/health/robin-williams-lewy-body-dementia.html
Robin