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IMAGE: SPECT images, superimposed on a magnetic resonance atlas, of an axial slice (top row) and a sagittal slice (bottom row) of the human brain, with a quantitative artificial-color scale showing. view more
Credit: Francisco Oliveira (CCU)
American actor Robin Williams had a neurodegenerative brain disease called dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB): a distressing disease, with symptoms in common with Alzheimer s disease (AD) and Parkinson s disease (PD). But unlike these two conditions, DLB also entails prominent mood and cognitive swings, sleep disorders, and vivid, sometimes terrifying, visual hallucinations. It is now thought that Robin Williams, whose diagnosis was only ascertained post-mortem, was likely driven to suicide, in 2014, by the terrifying hallucinatory experiences he suffered for years - and about which he never told anyone, not even his wife. Susan Schneider Williams recounted the tragic story in an editorial published in the journal
Imaging technique can differentiate Alzheimer s disease from dementia with Lewy bodies
Scientists in Portugal and the United Kingdom were able to confirm that an imaging technique that traces neuronal dopaminergic deficiency in the brain is able to differentiate, in vivo, dementia with Lewy
This could have important implications for the specific management and treatment of these conditions.
American actor Robin Williams had a neurodegenerative brain disease called dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB): a distressing disease, with symptoms in common with Alzheimer s disease (AD) and Parkinson s disease (PD).
But unlike these two conditions, DLB also entails prominent mood and cognitive swings, sleep disorders, and vivid, sometimes terrifying, visual hallucinations.