A study published in the medical journal Cortex highlights the importance of differentiating between the various types of disinhibition in bvFTD.

The study was conducted by Lara Migliaccio and Bénédicte Batrancourt of the FrontLab team at the Paris Brain Institute. For the study, the researchers recruited 23 participants with bvFTD and 24 control participants from the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris.

Participants were asked to spend 45 minutes alone in a room made to resemble a waiting room and were allowed to freely interact with anything in it (ranging from food and drinks to magazines and games) while researchers used cameras to observe their behavior. According to the study, both people with and without a bvFTD diagnosis showed some level of disinhibition because they were alone in the room, though disinhibition was much more pronounced in people with bvFTD.

Researchers classified disinhibited behaviors into three categories:

• Compulsive Behaviors: Repeated movements or actions such as rubbing hands or opening and closing a window.
• Impulsive Behaviors: Typically marked by the onset of strong emotions, these behaviors included shouting, laughing, and dancing.
• Socially Disinhibited Behaviors: Actions taken by someone that didn’t regard social norms, such as being excessively familiar with others or not following the instructions for the study.

In addition to noting the differences between disinhibited behaviors, researchers also highlighted that the more active someone with bvFTD was, the less likely they were to show socially disinhibited behavior. The overall level of disinhibition was also reduced when people with bvFTD were focused on completing a task, such as a questionnaire given to them by researchers.

As such, the researchers believe that keeping people with bvFTD stimulated could be helpful in reducing disinhibition, as well as frustration and agitation. However, stimulation could prove to be detrimental if not provided correctly, as people with bvFTD tend to become stressed when they are required to perform actions that symptoms have made difficult or impossible. The researchers recommend individualizing activities based on someone’s hobbies and interests, or that align with typical household tasks they are used to.

“Frontotemporal dementia needs to surface from invisibility. Because patients are not able to seek care, which is common in neurobehavioral diseases, they don’t really have a voice of their own.” Migliaccio told Neuroscience News. “As for caregivers, they often feel at loss because patients are young and rarely have co-morbidities. Nursing homes or hospitals are not appropriate places for them.”

Click here to read an article from AFTD’s Partners in FTD Care, which provides more information about disinhibition in bvFTD.

Click here to learn more about bvFTD.