Diagnosis and Therapy for Lewy Body Dementia

Almost undistinguished some 30 years ago, dementia with Lewy bodies is now shown to be the second most common neurodegenerative cause of dementia in the elderly. A host of neuroinflammatory mechanisms are attributed to Lewy bodies and their component alpha synuclein, a common pathology shared by Parkinson disease and Parkinson disease with dementia. Accurate diagnosis of patients is essential, as they show unique impairment patterns, which differ from other forms of dementia and show severe adverse reaction to neuroleptic medication, a common treatment in other degenerative diseases.