Dementia is classified into four categories: Alzheimer’s, vascular dementia, frontotemporal dementia, and dementia with Lewy bodies.
Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) is a progressive dementia that leads to a decline in thinking, reasoning and independent function.
It occurs due to abnormal microscopic deposits that damage brain cells over time, and accounts for 10-25 percent of cases.
Lewy bodies in the brain are abnormal deposits of protein and are also found in Parkinson’s disease dementia, so early signs could include Parkinson’s symptoms, such as hunched posture and rigid muscles.
In fact, some of the earliest signs of DLB are often movement problems, including issues with walking and balance, which can become obvious earlier than any problems with memory.
Because of that, the disease is often misdiagnosed. According to the Lewy Body Dementia Association, it is often mistaken for Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s or even a psychiatric disorder, due to its wide variety of symptoms.
“They are less prone to the short-term memory loss associated with Alzheimer’s than to problems with executive function,” the association notes.
“They struggle to handle complex tasks like grocery shopping. They often develop visuospatial problems and find it hard to navigate or perceive distances, so that they lose their way in familiar settings or misjudge distances and fall.”
According to Alzheimer’s UK, early symptoms of dementia with Lewy bodies include:
- Reduced thinking speed and changes in reasoning
- Slow movement and Parkinson’s symptoms such as stiff limbs and tremors
- Tiredness and sleep disturbances, such as acting out dreams
- Visual hallucinations
- Confusion and alertness that varies significantly from one time of day to another or from one day to the next
- Disruption of the autonomic nervous system, causing a blood pressure drop on standing, dizziness, falls and urinary incontinence
