ACTOR Bruce Willis has frontotemporal dementia, known as FTD.
This was announced by his family, saying the 67-year-old actor has a form of dementia that occurs most commonly when nerve cells in the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain decrease in number.
Willis, 67, was previously diagnosed with aphasia, which prompted him to retire from acting. “FTD is a cruel disease that many of us have never heard of and can strike anyone,” the family wrote in a statement.
There are two main variants of FTD: primary progressive aphasia, which hampers a patient’s ability to communicate, and behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia, which manifests as personality and behavioral changes. “It hits the parts of the brain that make us the most human,” said Dr. Bruce Miller, a professor of neurology at the University of California, San Francisco.
FTD is the most common cause of dementia for people under the age of 60, said Susan Dickinson, the chief executive of the Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration. There are roughly 50,000 people in the United States with a diagnosis of FTD, she added, although many experts consider that number to be a vast undercount, because of how challenging it can be to diagnose. There is no blood test or single biomarker to diagnose the condition — doctors instead identify it based on symptoms and neuroimaging. On average, it takes patients more than three years to get an accurate diagnosis, Ms. Dickinson said.
People with primary progressive aphasia may struggle to speak in full sentences or have difficulty comprehending conversations. They may have a hard time writing or reading.
