Symptoms

Symptoms of frontotemporal dementia differ from one person to the next. Symptoms get worse over time, usually over years.

People with frontotemporal dementia tend to have clusters of symptom types that occur together. They also may have more than one cluster of symptom types.
Behavioral changes

The most common symptoms of frontotemporal dementia involve extreme changes in behavior and personality. These include:

Increasingly inappropriate social behavior.
Loss of empathy and other interpersonal skills. For example, not being sensitive to another person's feelings.
Lack of judgment.
Loss of inhibition.
Lack of interest, also known as apathy. Apathy can be mistaken for depression.
Compulsive behaviors such as tapping, clapping, or smacking lips over and over.
A decline in personal hygiene.
Changes in eating habits. People with FTD typically overeat or prefer to eat sweets and carbohydrates.
Eating objects.
Compulsively wanting to put things in the mouth.

Speech and language symptoms

Some subtypes of frontotemporal dementia lead to changes in language ability or loss of speech. Subtypes include primary progressive aphasia, semantic dementia and progressive agrammatic aphasia, also known as progressive nonfluent aphasia.

These conditions can cause:

Increasing trouble using and understanding written and spoken language. People with FTD may not be able to find the right word to use in speech.
Trouble naming things. People with FTD may replace a specific word with a more general word, such as using "it" for pen.
No longer knowing word meanings.
Having hesitant speech that may sound telegraphic by using simple, two-word sentences.
Making mistakes in sentence building.

Movement conditions

Rare subtypes of frontotemporal dementia cause movements similar to those seen in Parkinson's disease or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

Movement symptoms may include:

Tremor.
Rigidity.
Muscle spasms or twitches.
Poor coordination.
Trouble swallowing.
Muscle weakness.
Inappropriate laughing or crying.
Falls or trouble walking.


-------------------------
I was right.

Edited: 12/27/2025 at 08:10 AM by Cole