Bruce Willis’ ex-wife Demi Moore revealed Thursday on Instagram that the retired actor has been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia.
Within the spring of 2022, Moore shared that the 67-year-old father-of-five had been diagnosed with aphasia — a brain disorder that affects communication abilities.
She stated in Thursday’s update that the “Unbreakable” star now has a clearer diagnosis: frontotemporal dementia, which unfortunately signifies that “challenges with communication are only one symptom of the disease Bruce faces.”
While Moore didn’t go into the specifics of Willis’ case, Dr. Allison B. Reiss of the NYU Long Island School of Medicine helped The Post higher understand this under-researched disease.
Here’s what it is best to learn about frontotemporal dementia:
What’s frontotemporal dementia?
“FTD is definitely a gaggle of brain disorders that cause progressive degeneration of the neurons within the brain and, because the name suggests, affects primarily the frontal and temporal areas of the brain,” Reiss told The Post in an email. “It has a comparatively young age of onset, most diagnosed between the ages of 45 and 64 years.”
The condition is diagnosed using a mix of brain scans and the doctor’s thorough research into their patient’s medical history, based on the Alzheimer’s Association.
There are three subtypes of frontotemporal dementia: behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia; primary progressive aphasia; and a few movement disorders, based on the National Institute of Aging.
Willis’ family has not specified from which sort he’s suffering.
What are the symptoms of FTD?
Individuals with FTD have relatively fewer memory problems in comparison with other types of dementia, Reiss wrote. Nevertheless, like other dementia-related diseases, they may exhibit emotional outbursts, poor manners and excessive familiarity with strangers, or go on to have muscular dysfunction.
Reiss said symptoms of FTD differ depending on the sort.
Symptoms of bvFTD include “changes in behavior, deterioration of personality, executive and social cognition. Also social disinhibition, apathy, reduced sympathy and empathy, poor judgment, altered food preferences, and repetitive behavior.”
Those with the semantic variant, PPA, have a tough time with naming and listening comprehension skills. Some may take quite a lot of effort to talk and don’t speak fluently. They’ll use poor grammar and have a difficult time comprehending complex sentences. “Over time, they lose the meaning of words and lose the flexibility to recollect what a well-known object is or use it. They could substitute close words or replace a word they’ve lost with ‘that thing’ or ‘the ,’” explained Reiss, a member of the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America’s Medical, Scientific and Memory Screening Advisory Board.
Those with PPA may, too, go on to indicate “at the very least some” of the behavioral problems seen in bvFTD.
Within the later stages of the disease, patients may experience muscle rigidity and weakness, poor balance, trouble swallowing and twitches. Some may go on to develop symptoms very similar to that of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, and lose the flexibility to maneuver their muscles. Those with advanced FTD are unable to look after themselves, and can eventually turn out to be wheelchair-bound or bedridden.
What causes FTD?
The reason for FTD is unknown normally, based on the National Institute of Aging. Nevertheless, the Alzheimer’s Association estimates that a 3rd of all cases are inherited.
“That is unknown except in some rare inherited cases related to specific gene
mutations. More research is required,” Reiss told The Post.
Can or not it’s treated?
FTD can’t be cured, but there are therapies and drug treatments to enhance the patient’s quality of life — to cut back the agitation, irritability and depression that include a terminal disease, based on the Alzheimer’s Association.
Unfortunately, there are not any specific medications to assist stave off the physiological damage brought on by FTD and its subtypes.
How is it different from aphasia?
Aphasia refers to “difficulty speaking, actually because of injury to specific areas of the brain,” and could be related to diseases aside from FTD, Reiss clarified. “It has quite a few causes,” she continued, including stroke, head trauma or infection. Aphasia itself doesn’t spell the “inevitable lack of functioning and skill to look after oneself” — but its underlying causes might.
How is it different from Alzheimer’s?
Individuals with early Alzheimer’s will experience more distinguished memory loss than someone with FTD, whereas FTD causes more behavioral and language changes, based on the Alzheimer’s Association. Nevertheless, individuals with advanced FTD can experience memory loss on top of those effects in a while.
Alzheimer’s is often diagnosed in older patients whereas individuals with FTD are frequently diagnosed between their 40s and early 60s.
Someone with Alzheimer’s can be more more likely to, for instance, forget where they’re, struggle to search out the word they’re searching for or forget a reputation. Meanwhile, someone with FTD might be ineffective at forming logical statements, understanding others in conversation and reading, based on the organization.
Patients may additionally go on to be diagnosed with each FTD and Alzheimer’s, in addition to other types of dementia.
“FTD and Alzheimer’s all end similarly with language and behavior profoundly affected and memory dramatically reduced as well,” Reiss added. “Twenty-four-hour care could also be crucial. Death may occur in consequence of infections equivalent to pneumonia.”
