Patterns of referring of patients with frontotemporal lobar degeneration to psychiatric in- and out-patient services. Results from a prospective multicentre study

Dementia with frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) is clinically characterized by the occurrence of various psychiatric symptoms. In a recent study, the hospital-based prevalence of FTLD and the circumstances of the patients' admission to German psychiatric state hospitals were estimated. On the basis of further continuous assessment, this original FTLD group (n = 33) has been enlarged to 58 patients. The authors here present demographic and clinical data, and reasons for admission to geriatric psychiatry hospitals in comparison with 17 patients, who primarily attended the Memory Disorders Clinic of the University of Regensburg. The results implicate that both institutions see patients with different clinical syndromes: (1) patients were primarily referred to the Memory Disorders Clinic presenting memory and/or speech difficulties as the leading symptoms; (2) major reasons for hospitalisation of patients with FTLD in geriatric psychiatry hospitals were behavioural disturbances; (3) late-onset FTLD (>65 years) was more common than previously assumed in both institutions, and (4) increasing age at admission increased the likelihood to obtain a limited diagnostic approach of brain imaging (only cranial computer tomography) to evaluate the cause of dementia.