Mar 15, 2010

What is dementia with Lewy bodies?

It seems time to revisit what dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) is, as I am again hearing people say to me they have never heard of it. This information is from Mayo Clinic. The name of this disease comes from the abnormal protein deposits, called Lewy bodies after the physician who identified them, found in deteriorating nerve cells. These Lewy bodies are bound in both Parkinson's disease and dementia with Lewy Body. In DLB the areas of the brain that are affected involve emotion, behavior and cognition. Thus, people who have DLB have some symptoms like Parkinson's disease and some symptoms like Alzheimer's disease.

DLB has four defining symptoms:
1. dementia
2. fluctuating attention and alertness
3. visual hallucinations
4. Parkinsonism - muscle rigidity and slowness, drooling

Other symptoms include:
Anxiety, sleep disorders, delusions, nonvisual hallucinations, lightheadedness upon standing, unexplained loss of consciousness, depression

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