More diminished attention, better immediate recall may signal Lewy body dementia: Study

NEW DELHI: Cognitive problems like more diminished attention, but better immediate recall and memory may help predict Lewy body dementia, according to a study.

Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) is the most common neurodegenerative dementia after Alzheimer's Disease, yet is usually misdiagnosed, preventing affected people from accessing care better tailored to their prognosis.

To aid in early detection which may help improve outcomes, researchers from the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus gathered information from available studies and established a cognitive profile that can differentiate DLB from Alzheimer's before the dementia stage hits.

This can “better help inform the direction of care for people with these diseases", said lead author Ece Bayram, Assistant Professor of Neurology at the varsity.

The study, published in the Alzheimer's & Dementia journal, found consistencies in cognitive symptoms among people with DLB compared to people with Alzheimer's in a meta-analysis of pre-dementia stage diagnoses.

At the pre-dementia stage, people with DLB demonstrated more diminished attention, processing speed, and executive function as well as better immediate recall and memory compared to people with Alzheimer's.

The team found that people with DLB are also reactive to certain types of commonly prescribed medications for psychosis, such as haloperidol, that tend to worsen their condition.

"Identifying cognitive profiles gave us the outcome necessary to suggest guidelines that practitioners could easily be trained into better tailor plans of care," Bayram said.

"Furthermore, providing a framework for clinical assessment versus biomarker testing means more accessibility for practitioners. It is easier and cheaper to train in providing cognitive assessments than administering imaging or invasive biomarker tests," Bayram added.

Researchers say identifying the form of dementia early can guide future planning for both the person with dementia and their care partners, and ease disease by providing proper symptomatic treatment.