New Diagnostic Criteria Shine Light on Early Dementia Mimics

In a collaborative study published in Brain , British academics and clinicians devised a diagnostic definition of Functional Cognitive Disorder (FCD), reports ScienceDaily . "While FCD involves impairment of thinking processes, unlike dementia, it is not expected to progress," explained the University of Bristol's Harriet Ball. "From a patient's point of view, that is a very different prognosis and one that requires different management." Ball added that "having clear diagnostic criteria for FCD will enable us to better characterize the condition and better explain it — and its prognosis — to patients and their families." The first clinical definition of FCD arrived at by academic and medical consensus will facilitate a new phase of FCD investigation as researchers can now consistently identify subjects for studies. The next stage for this work, already in progress, is to evaluate clinical markers and understand the epidemiology, in order to build treatment studies. "With a clear operational definition, we'll be better at picking the right people for trials against, for example, Alzheimer's proteins — because if lots of people with FCD are in those trials, it is much harder to show any treatment effect against Alzheimer's," Ball concluded.