Work

“Fantastic Thinking” in Pathologically Proven Pick Disease

Year: 2010

Type: article

Abstract: BACKGROUND: Reports of false beliefs may be a unique feature of behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) but the nature of these experiences is unclear. OBJECTIVE: To report a case of pathologically verified Pick disease in a patient presenting with prominent and recurrent fantasies. METHODS: We describe the clinical, neuroradiologic, and neuropathologic findings of a 53-year-old woman presenting with fantasies and meeting Clinical Consensus Criteria for bvFTD. RESULTS: Early in her course, she reported interactions with different actors, having torrid affairs with them, and other related fantasies. When confronted with her false beliefs, she admitted that these relationships were imaginary. Autopsy revealed Pick disease with tau-immunoreactive Pick bodies in the frontal and temporal cortices, and in the hippocampi. CONCLUSIONS: Fantastic thinking, or vividly experienced imagination, may be a manifestation of bvFTD that is distinct from delusions and confabulations and could be the source of previously reported delusions and confabulations in bvFTD.

Source: Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology

DOI: 10.1097/wnn.0b013e3181df3007

Authors: Sarah A. Kremen, Orestes E. Solis, Jill S. Shapira, Harry V. Vinters, Mario F. Mendez

Institutions: VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, University of California, Los Angeles

Language: English

Topic: Dementia and Cognitive Impairment Research

Subfield: Psychiatry and Mental health

Field: Medicine

Domain: Health Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: green

Funder: National Institute on Aging