Frontotemporal Dementia: Military Exposures and Disease Characteristics (FTD-MEDIC)
Abstract
What is Frontotemporal Dementia and why is research important? Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is a group of disorders that occur when there is a loss of nerve cells in two areas of the brain called the frontal and temporal lobes. This can affect behavior, personality, language, and movement. FTD affects approximately 60,000 people in the United States and is the most common type of dementia that occurs before 65 years of age. Currently there are no treatments available to cure or slow down FTD, but doctors can offer patients medicine to make symptoms more bearable. Although FTD is not life-threatening, it can be a very heavy load to bear for both patients and caregivers. FTD can increase risk for other more serious illnesses. Although some cases of FTD run in families, most people with FTD have no family history of it nor of other types of dementia. Experts believe that conditions like diabetes, thyroid disease etc., and environmental factors such as injury to the brain are associated with more risk for FTD. Knowing how FTD occurs and what its risk factors are in a population may provide clues to clinicians and researchers to improve options of diagnosis, treatment, care, and preventive efforts for FTD. Why the need to know more about FTD subgroups and their clinical features? FTD is a complex condition, and depending on the cause and the area of the brain being affected, its symptoms can vary greatly from person to person. Because of this, it is hard to differentiate FTD from other dementias such as Alzheimer’s and psychiatric disorders. In some people, FTD can occur with other weakening movement disorders or neurological disorders. Identifying the subgroups, or different kinds, of FTD and their symptoms is very important in correct diagnosis and management of these disorders. Why is this important to the Veterans in the Departments of Defense (DoD) and Veterans Affairs (VA)? Post-9/11 U.S. war Veterans often have brain injury and diseases such as heart disease and diabetes that increase risk for dementia. As they age, it is estimated that dementias (FTD, Alzheimer’s and its related dementias) will start to occur even more often. This could greatly increase the burden on patients and families, in addition to increasing the care burden for dementia in the DoD and VA healthcare systems. To date, no study has directly and effectively evaluated the occurrence of dementia and its subtypes in post-9/11 Veterans nor its associated risk due to military-specific exposures. Because of this, it is important to study the occurrence of FTD and its clinical characteristics frequently seen among Veterans. Scientific Objective: The proposed study, “Frontotemporal Dementia: Military Exposures and DIsease Characteristics (FTDMEDIC),” will use existing records from the DoD and VA to study frontotemporal dementia in post-9/11 U.S. Veterans. This study will first identify people with FTD using diagnoses from clinical care, followed by review of health records such as clinical notes and reports to identify symptoms related to FTD, describe how often FTD occurs in this population, and describe FTD subgroups. By matching each person with FTD to four other Veterans of similar age and sex in the same population but with no diagnosis of FTD or other dementias, it is possible to see if injury to the brain or spinal cord, or risk for blast in different military jobs differs between those with and without FTD, or different among the subgroups of FTD. As FTD treatment is mostly symptomatic, knowing the clinical types of FTD that are frequent in this population and those that may be at risk for FTD can guide clinicians in diagnosis and management of the those with FTD. These finding will also help VA/DoD plan for healthcare resources and treatment programs that will be needed in the future. The computer programming tool that is currently used on VA data to identify memory loss and other activities of daily living will be impr
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Mar 10, 2021
- Source ID
- W81XWH2010141
Entities
People
- Jamie N Mayo
Organizations
- United States Army
- University of Utah