Name : [in Japanese]
Number : 32
Location : [in Japanese]
Date : February 06, 2021 -
Pages 15-22
Accurate diagnosis of frontotemporal dementia is challenging in early stages. This is especially true for right temporal variant of frontotemporal dementia, which has no separate diagnostic criteria yet due to its relatively equivocal symptoms. Here we present a case with right temporal variant frontotemporal dementia who presented with alcohol dependency, language without social context, and remarkable behavioral symptoms and was first misdiagnosed as having alcohol-related dementia. He was precisely diagnosed eight years after symptom onset, when he revealed prosopagnosia, difficulty recognizing his housemates, social cognition and knowledge impairment, semantic memory impairment, loss of empathy, ritualistic behaviors, and difficulty finding and comprehending words. Retrospectively, his alcohol dependency itself was considered an early manifestation of right temporal variant frontotemporal dementia. We discussed the characteristics of right temporal variant frontotemporal dementia using symptoms of our present case as well as findings from past literature. Abnormal behaviors might be derived partly from impairment of social contextual cognition and social knowledge as well as semantic memory impairment.
