A new international diagnostic criteria of behavioural variant of frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) and its utility

Koji Ogomori, Hitoshi Iida

Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Fukuoka University

Diagnostic criteria of behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD), one of the clinical subtype of FTLD, was revised in 2011 by an international research group. The criteria was introduced in Japanese in this article. Symptoms of bvFTD are categorized into behavioral disinhibition, apathy or inertia, loss of sympathy or empathy, stereotyped behavior, hyperorality and dietary changes, and executive deficits with relative sparing of memory and visuospatial functions. These symptoms represent the dysfunction of the anterior portion of the brain, in contrast to the Alzheimer's disease that exhibits mainly the dysfunction of the posterior portion of the brain. New diagnostic criteria has a high sensitivity than the previous one, and is considered to be useful.

Address correspondence to Dr. Koji Ogomori, Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Fukuoka University (7-45-1 Nanakuma, Johnan-ku, Fukuoka 814-0180, Japan)