Dementia with Lewy Bodies

Abstract

Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) is a type of dementia that falls under the heading of atypical parkinsonian/movement disorders or “Parkinson’s Plus” disorders, referring to finding that patients with Parkinson’s Plus syndromes have movement symptoms (parkinsonism) “plus” other symptoms. This group of movement disorders, which have cognitive symptoms that progress into dementias, is a fascinating group of disorders. In addition to DLB, this group of disorders includes such disorders as cortical-basal ganglionic degeneration (CBD), progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), and multiple system atrophy (MSA). These syndromes can be difficult to distinguish from one another, especially in earlier or prodromal stages. In addition, DLB is most often misdiagnosed as Parkinson’s disease (PD) when abnormalities of movement are present and due to the fact that, to many physicians, the movement symptoms of DLB may look similar to PD and may respond to dopaminergic medications. However, these medications can cause significant psychiatric side effects not seen in early treatment of PD with dopaminergic medications. Although DLB is typically ranked as the second or third most common type of dementia, depending on the source [1], DLB continues to be a lesser-known type of dementia in comparison to Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and vascular dementia (VaD).