Pick’s disease: causes, symptoms and treatment

This rare dementia causes the death of neurons, especially in the frontal and temporal lobes.

Dementias are a type of neurodegenerative disease in which different mental capacities are progressively lost, with the person as a whole deteriorating progressively as the disease progresses. The best known of these diseases is Alzheimer's diseaseAlzheimer's disease, although there are many others.

Within this group of disorders, another neurodegenerative disease that has characteristics very similar to those of Alzheimer's disease is known as Pick's disease. Let us see what are its characteristics.

Pick's disease: main characteristics

Pick's disease is a neurodegenerative disorder. which causes the progressive deterioration of the mental capacities of those who suffer from it due to neuronal death. Thus, it causes a frontotemporal dementia, starting the cell destruction in the frontal lobe to gradually expand to the temporal lobe.

This disease is a relatively common form of frontotemporal dementia, and it is estimated that about 25% of them are due to Pick's disease. Symptoms usually begin between 40 and 50 years of age.It has the peculiarity that it is a disease that does not become more prevalent with increasing age (unlike Alzheimer's disease).

Like most other dementias, Pick's disease is a disease that causes progressive and irreversible deterioration. causes progressive and irreversible deterioration without periods of remission and culminating in the death of the individual. It has a course of about 5 to 15 years between the onset of symptoms and the death of the subject.

Symptoms

The presentation of the symptoms of Pick's disease sometimes causes it to be confused with unusual forms of Alzheimer's disease, but it has features that distinguish it from this and other dementias..

The main symptoms of dementia caused by this disease are the following.

Personality changes

One of the first symptoms to be noticed in Pick's disease is the presence of sudden changes in the personality of the person with Pick's disease. sudden changes in the patient's personality. These changes usually refer to an increase in behavioral disinhibition, increased aggressiveness and impulsivity and even an increase in socialization. The opposite may also occur, presenting abulia and apathy.

2. Altered mood

Like the personality, the mood may also be altered in the early stages of the disease. Emotional lability, irritability, nervousness, nervousness or, on the contrary, emotional dullness can be seen frequently.

3. Executive functions

Considering that the alteration starts in the frontal area, it is easy to associate this disease with the presence of alterations in the executive functions. Decision making, risk assessment, planning and maintenance or change of action are complicated. It is common to observe the existence of perseverance and even obsessive characteristics. Particularly marked is the lack of impulse control.

4. Socialization

It is also common for the patient's social relationships to deteriorate. Although initially in some cases a rapprochement with others may be facilitated by reducing the level of inhibition approach to others may be facilitated by reducing the level of inhibition.In the long run, bonds and social skills deteriorate. It is also frequent that the weakening of self-control causes them to present hypersexuality, performing practices such as masturbation in public.

5. Memory

In its expansion by the frontal and temporal, Pick's disease generates little by little alterations of memory, both anterograde and retrograde. both anterograde and retrograde. These alterations occur later compared to other dementias such as Alzheimer's disease, with which it is sometimes confused.

6. Language

Pick's disease usually causes alterations in the patient's language over time. It is common that the speech, as well as the literacy, slows down and loses fluency. Anomia, perseveration and repetition of words and echolalia are also common. and echolalia are also frequent. The pragmatic use of language, both in its verbal and paraverbal aspects, and its adaptation to norms and specific situations are also often impaired.

Its causes

Pick's disease is a problem whose origin is unknown. However, it has been detected that people suffering from Pick's disease present alterations in the tau protein-coding genes..

The tau protein appears in excess in the brain, within the complexes known as Pick bodies. These cells cause damage in the neurons of the frontal and temporal area, culminating in progressive atrophy of the cerebral lobes.. The presence of abalone neurons is also observed.

The fact that genetic mutations have been found in the genes that develop this protein indicates that this disease is influenced by genetics, and indeed may in fact be passed on to offspring.

Treatment for Pick's disease

Dementia caused by Pick's disease has no treatment that can reverse its effects. Thus, Pick's disease disease does not have a curative treatment as of today.. However, it is possible to slow down the deterioration caused by the progression of the disease and help those affected to have a better quality of life.

At the psychological level, the use of occupational therapy and neurostimulation is essential. occupational therapy and neurostimulation to keep the patient mentally activated. It is also useful to use compensatory mechanisms with regard to the skills that are being lost, such as the use of an agenda to control the things that must be done and that memory deficits have less effect on their daily life.

Psychoeducation, counseling and psychological support to both the patient and his or her environment. is also essential, since we are facing a complicated situation in which the existence of information about what is happening to the individual is essential to understand his situation.

At the pharmacological level, different psychotropic drugs such as antidepressants or even some antipsychotics can be used to control the symptomatology.