Differences in aggression among people with dementia
"The prevalences are not surprising, but we noted a difference between the two groups in terms of when in the course of the disease aggressive behaviour manifested and how serious the violence was," says psychiatry resident Madeleine Liljegren, doctoral student at Lund University and lead author of the study. The study is based on a review of brain examinations and patient journals of 281 deceased people who between the years 1967 and 2013 were diagnosed with Alzheimer's or frontotemporal dementia. The researchers have followed the entire duration of the disease for this group, from the patients' first contact with a physician to follow up after death. "The individuals with frontotemporal dementia displayed physically aggressive behaviour earlier in their disease than people with Alzheimer's. The difference may be due to the fact that the diseases arise in different parts of the brain. For those with frontotemporal dementia, the damage begins in the fro...