What If It's Not Alzheimer's: A Caregiver's Guide to Dementia [Paperback]

After a long struggle to find information on frontotemporal dementia-FTD and Pick's disease, I can finally get answers to my questions and the specific information we have always needed. It takes so much time to care for someone, never mind taking time to search for helpful facts. Its appears that this book has covered it all. The expansive contents makes it very simple to find a subject without reading the entire book. There is a lot of great information, well organized by topics that allows you to read what is important in a fairly quick way. There are several idea lists and tables that privide solutions to problems or detailed info to help with daily activities. There are also good explanations of the different types of dementia, which can be very confusing. Also, there are some chapters that tell you what to think about and where to go for financial and legal matters. At the end of the book is a list of resources for different things one needs in daily caregiving. It seems that the many different writers of this book have excellent experience and knowledge of the subject. I highly recommend this book for people who are caregivers, but also to doctors and health professionals who still have so much to learn.

I wish I had found this book over a year ago. Statistically the largest portion of people diagnosed with dementia are diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease. The sad truth is that many people diagnosed as having Alzheimer's are mis-diagnosed and don't have Alzheimer's but some other form of dementia. Dementia is not a disease itself but a symptom of something else going on. Just like pain is not a disease but caused by other things. Many things can and do cause dementia: brain tumors, metabolic conditons, trauma, fluid on the brain, nutritional issues, alzheimer's, frontotemporal lobe, lewy bodies and on.

This book talks about other causes of dementia besides Alzheimer's. It focuses more heavily on Frontotemporal Dementia or FTD. There is growing evidence that a large percentage of people diagnosed with Alzheimer's actually have had or do have FTD. This was the case with my mother. So what's the big deal? Both kinds of dementia are debilitating and have no cure right? Well the big deal is when someone has Alzheimer's they can give them medicine that helps maintain memory for about 12-18 longer than without the meds. With FTD if you give that person the Alzheimer's meds because of a mis-diagonosis it can cause severe behavior problems. There is nothing you can give for FTD. I personally witnessed this problem with my mother after being put on an anti-Alzheimer's med. She had to be taken off of it since it caused some severe psychotic behavior. Had I or the doctor at the time know more about FTD there would not have been a false diagnosis of Alzheimer's. Why? It really is not that hard to make a proper diagnosis of FTD if you know and the doctor know what to look for. FTD begins with behavior issues and then comes memory impairment where Alheimer's begins with memory impairment. Plus Alzheimer's tend to affect the Parietal and Temporal lobes of the brain first and FTD starts with the frontal and temporal lobes first. Over time however it is not easy to tell the difference. The best thing when in doubt is knowing the patients background and detailed history, neuropsych testing and a CT or MRI scan to look for where the shrinkage is taking place in the brain first.

Again this book is a great resource and help to anyone wanting more info on dementia and specifically if you wonder is it really Alzheimer's. It is the only book like it out there and it is not just fluff. It is also highly recommended by the Association of Frontotemporal Dementia out of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. All thumbs up on this one.

"What If It's Not Alzheimer's" will help all caregivers to cope with the loss of their loved ones as cognitively sound individuals. Whether Alzheimer's, multi-infarct, Parkinson's, FTD, or any of the dozens of other dementias, the perpetual grief and mourning felt by the caregivers will be the same. Dementia is a disease that knows no boundaries. It is blind to the categories in which we usually place our fellow human beings. It can occur at the age of 55 or 85. It can happen to Blacks, Whites, Hispanics, Asians, Jews, Christians, Muslims, males and females, rich and poor. It has not spared ex-presidents. Tears are shed by husbands and wives, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters-in fact anyone responsible for the care of a loved one with dementia. I speak from personal experience. Dementia did not spare my mother whose 15 year journey into the opaque fog of multi-infarct dementia is told in my own recently published memoir. I recommend "What If It's Not Alzheimer's" to anyone whose loved one is experiencing this terrible disease.

Robert Tell, Author of "DEMENTIA DIARY, A Care Giver's Journal"