Treatment Approach to a Patient with Lewy Body Dementia

Public Deposited

Analytics

Last Modified

Creator

Harris, Kami
- Affiliation: School of Medicine, Department of Allied Health Sciences, Physician Assistant Program

Abstract

Although LBD [Lewy Body Dementia] and AD [Alzheimer's Disease] share many of the same symptoms, their etiologies differ as does their approach to treatment. Therefore, it is important for the clinician to be able to assess for differences between the two. LDB has earlier detrimental effects on quality of life in comparison to AD. The approach to therapy should be targeted and an intervention should be initiated as early as possible. There is no cure for either at this time, therefore the mainstay of therapy is symptom management. The goal of treatment is to improve quality of life, maintain as much independence as possible, and minimize adverse reactions to medications. Among available medications, cholinesterase inhibitors have shown some benefit in cognitive functioning for AD, but less for LBD. Even within the subset of LBD, DLB patients respond better to cholinesterase inhibitors compared to PDD patients. This is likely because the pathology of DLB is more similar to AD than PDD. In contrast, treatment with levodopa is more effective in treating parkinsonian symptoms in patients with PDD compared to LDB. This is likely due to PDD being more similar to Parkinson’s disease pathology than DLB. Research continues to investigate appropriate therapies for both AD and LBD. Unfortunately, LBD lags behind most other neurological disorders in research, treatment, and awareness.

Date of publication

Keyword

DOI

Resource type

Rights statement

Reviewer

Degree

Degree granting institution

Graduation year

Language

Deposit record

Relations

Parents:

This work has no parents.

In Collection:

Thumbnail	Title	Date Uploaded	Visibility	Actions
	HarrisCapstonePA2017.pdf	2019-04-25	Public	Download