Symptoms

Signs and symptoms of frontotemporal dementia can be different from one individual to the next. Signs and symptoms get progressively worse over time, usually over years.

Clusters of symptom types tend to occur together, and people may have more than one cluster of symptom types.

Behavioral changes

The most common signs of frontotemporal dementia involve extreme changes in behavior and personality. These include:

• Increasingly inappropriate social behavior
• Loss of empathy and other interpersonal skills, such as having sensitivity to another's feelings
• Lack of judgment
• Loss of inhibition
• Lack of interest (apathy), which can be mistaken for depression
• Repetitive compulsive behavior, such as tapping, clapping or smacking lips
• A decline in personal hygiene
• Changes in eating habits, usually overeating or developing a preference for sweets and carbohydrates
• Eating inedible objects
• Compulsively wanting to put things in the mouth

Speech and language problems

Some subtypes of frontotemporal dementia lead to language problems or impairment or loss of speech. Primary progressive aphasia, semantic dementia and progressive agrammatic (nonfluent) aphasia are all considered to be frontotemporal dementia.

Problems caused by these conditions include:

• Increasing difficulty in using and understanding written and spoken language, such as having trouble finding the right word to use in speech or naming objects
• Trouble naming things, possibly replacing a specific word with a more general word such as "it" for pen
• No longer knowing word meanings
• Having hesitant speech that may sound telegraphic
• Making mistakes in sentence construction

Movement disorders

Rarer subtypes of frontotemporal dementia are characterized by problems with movement, similar to those associated with Parkinson's disease or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

Movement-related problems may include:

• Tremor
• Rigidity
• Muscle spasms
• Poor coordination
• Difficulty swallowing
• Muscle weakness
• Inappropriate laughing or crying