I’ve been reviewing the reports from the December 2015 International Dementia with Lewy Bodies conference. This AlzForum report — which provides an excellent primer on DLB — is worth reading in full.
www.alzforum.org/news/conference-coverage/dementia-lewy-bodies-research-ready-clinical-trials
What was new to me from the report?
- “Autopsy reports flag 10 to 15 percent of lifetime dementia cases as DLB.” Based on this, I don’t know how we can say that Lewy Body Dementia is the second most common dementia among the elderly.
- I learned that DLB affects four different types of neurons in the brain.
- “Longitudinal MCI [mild cognitive impairment] studies have exposed a helpful dichotomy whereby amnestic MCI tends to progress to AD [Alzheimer’s Disease] and non-amnestic MCI to DLB.”
What wasn’t new to me but worth the reminder?
- In a 2010 paper, “only 12 to 30 percent of past DLB cases were recognized even by clinicians at the federally funded network of Alzheimer’s centers.”
- DLB most commonly co-occurs with Alzheimer’s pathology. It is rarely seen with pure alpha-synuclein pathology.
- The key reason to bother with a diagnosis is due to the risks of medications for someone with DLB.
- Many DLB symptoms are quite treatable. There’s a great chart on the “pros and cons of pharmacotherapy,” reviewing certain classes of medications and whether there’s optimism or caution for each class by symptom being treated.
Robin