The dissolution of language in Pick's disease with neurofibrillary tangles: a case study

This paper is a detailed retrospective history of a patient who began to have difficulty with speaking and comprehension in 1967, and whose neuropathological examination at time of death 12 1/2 years later was consistent with a diagnosis of Pick's disease, complicated by neurofibrillary tangles. It follows the deteriorating course of his language abilities in the context of relatively less-impaired general cognitive abilities, using two sources of information. The first is his own written record of his deteriorating abilities, shown in letters and notes he wrote over this period. The second is through an oral history obtained from the patient's family. The purpose of this report is to illustrate in detail the course of a degenerative condition and to suggest the utility of such descriptional records in increasing understanding of language deterioration in dementia.