Lewy Body Dementia

The Lewy Body Dementia topic includes research on the causes, diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of Lewy body dementia, a disease associated with abnormal deposits of a protein called alpha-synuclein in the brain. It includes research on Parkinson’s disease dementia and Lewy body variant of Alzheimer’s disease.

Diagnosing Lewy body dementia can be challenging because early symptoms are similar to symptoms found in other brain diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease. Lewy body dementia typically begins at age 50 or older, although sometimes younger people may have it.

Lewy body dementia is a progressive disease. It lasts an average of 5 to 7 years from the time of diagnosis to death, but it can range from 2 to 20 years. How quickly symptoms develop and change varies from person to person, depending on overall health, age, and severity of symptoms. The cause of Lewy body dementia is unknown. Most people who are diagnosed with it do not have a family history of the disease.