Eating behaviour profiles across the frontotemporal dementia spectrum

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Neurology
• Behavioral Science

Background:

• Altered eating behaviors are a known feature of behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD).
• Eating changes are less understood in progressive nonfluent aphasia (PNFA) and semantic dementia (SD).

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the frequency and onset of eating behavior changes across bvFTD, PNFA, and SD subtypes.
• To compare the prevalence and incidence of specific eating behaviors among these frontotemporal dementia subtypes.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective review of data from 58 patients (14 bvFTD, 30 PNFA, 14 SD).
• Assessment of eating changes using the Neuropsychiatric Inventory and medical records.
• Time-to-event analysis, Kaplan-Meier curves, and log-rank tests to compare cumulative incidence.

Main Results:

• Overall prevalence of eating changes was highest in bvFTD (85.7%) but not statistically different across subtypes (p=0.220).
• Incidence also did not differ significantly between groups (p=0.054).
• Overeating was significantly more frequent in bvFTD compared to PNFA and SD (p=0.011). Reduced food intake and preference changes occurred non-specifically.

Conclusions:

• Appetite and eating behavior changes are prevalent across the frontotemporal dementia spectrum.
• Overeating is a specific indicator for bvFTD, while reduced intake and preference changes are non-specific.
• Eating behavior alterations warrant consideration in all frontotemporal dementia subtypes.