Clinical Phenotype of Behavioral-Variant Frontotemporal Dementia Reversed by ECT: A Case Report

Abstract

Introduction: Diagnosis of frontotemporal dementia (FTD) remains difficult even in the presence of core clinical and imaging features. Furthermore, disease-modifying treatments are lacking.

Case presentation: Here, we report a case of a patient with clinical and imaging features of FTD. Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) was used to target affective and catatonic symptoms. After ECT, the patient showed improvements not only in affective symptoms but also in cognitive domains, leading to a marked improvement in the patient's level of functioning.

Conclusion: Against the background of diagnostic uncertainty and lack of disease-modifying treatments for FTD, we emphasize the importance of focusing on treatable symptoms. Thus, we recommend consideration of ECT as a viable option for multiple symptom domains. In this case of bvFTD, ECT was well-tolerated with relatively low side-effects.

Keywords: Behavioral-variant frontotemporal dementia; Behavioral-variant frontotemporal dementia phenocopy syndrome; Dementia; Electroconvulsive therapy.