User:Hvonruden13/Lewy body dementia

Lewy body dementia is one of the most common dementias in the world. It is a type of dementia that is associated with abnormal deposits of a protein in the brain called Alpha-Synuclein. The first abnormal protein deposits which are now known as Lewy bodies were discovered in 1912 by German neurologist, Dr Friederich Lewy. The Lewy bodies affect chemicals in the brain that control thinking, movement, behavior, and mood. Lewy Body Dementia can be difficult to diagnose because of the similarities it has with Alzheimer's and psychiatric disorders such as Schizophrenia. Lewy bodies affect several parts of the brain such as the cerebral cortex, limbic cortex, hippocampus, midbrain, basal ganglia, and brain stem. On average, men are four times more likely to have Lewy Body Dementia than women. Unlike gender there is less evidence with race being a factor in susceptibility to Lewy Body Dementia. There is significant support that African Americans are more susceptible to developing other dementias, such as Alzheimer's, but there is little evidence to conclude that one race or ethnicity is more susceptible to Lewy Body Dementia. It has been discovered that there are genetic risk factors that contribute to the onset of Lewy Body Dementia such as Parkinson's Disease.

The epidemiological study of Lewy Body Dementia is not fully complete as there are many obstacles such as small sample sizes and methodological factors causing limitations in finding accurate rates of incidence and prevalence. Many of the epidemiological findings about Dementia with Lewy Bodies (DLB) can be applied to Lewy Body Dementia. Lewy Body Dementia is the second most common neurodegenerative diseases behind Alzheimer's disease. The actual number of individuals with Lewy Body Dementia is unknown. For DLB, about 0.4% of people over the age of 65 will be affected; this is estimated, between 1 and 4 per 1,000 people develop the condition per year globally. The statistics vary greatly due to more research and data being collected, making the actual numbers of the disease unknown.

A study in the United Kingdom was performed to compare how frequently DLB was diagnosed versus how frequently PDD was diagnosed. The two regions showed great variability, which was reasoned to be in part of different diagnostic practices. Their findings showed that both of the two diseases were greatly under-diagnosed, which would mean that LBD would also be considered highly under-diagnosed. To obtain accurate rates of prevalence for LBD more standardized diagnostic practice must be incorporated into clinical practice.

Alike the study done in the UK the incidence of DLB was compared to the incidence of PDD among residents in Olmsted County, Minnesota. It was determined that the incidence of DLB is much less than PDD. There were 572 incident cases of Parkinsonism and 64 had DLB while 46 had PDD. Overall, DLB was 3.5 per 100,000 person-years and PDD had a 2.5 per 100,000 person-years. If you combined them, the total of both was about 5.9. It can also be noted that DLB patients were younger when the onset of symptoms occurred and had more hallucinations and cognitive fluctuations. It was also determined that men had a higher incidence of DLB than women and age was found to be the greatest factor to increase the incidence in both DLB and PDD.

Building awareness of LBD is extremely important as it creates high rates of morbidity. For example, some patients will have negative reactions to certain medications that help with hallucinations. So, a care provider has to be careful about how they are treating the patient. They need to make sure they are treating the disease and not just the symptom. Increasing awareness about the symptoms and and signs of LBD will help avoid those situations. Symptoms can range from sleep, mental and physical disorders. Some example of symptoms include loss of coordination, insomnia, tremors or shaking, dementia, hallucinations, depression, anxiety, dizziness, poor sense of smell, and many more. It is important for those with the illness or those that suspect they have it to notice and keep track of their symptoms. Continued research is being done everyday for example researchers, like David Irwin at the University of Pennsylvania, are studying LBD and how it can affect other brain cells. His team is working backwards by taking human tissue and developing biomarkers and tests for these diseases. He is just one of many researchers trying to make this disease more well known for future patients. It is important for the public to be educated on public health issues like LBD as it increases research that is done and increases the chances of treatments being developed which will lower the mortality and morbidity rates globally.