Welcome to From Care to Cure, a podcast from the Massachusetts General Hospital Frontotemporal Disorders Unit.  This episode features an interview with Dr. Brad Dickerson, Director of the MGH FTD Unit.  Dr. Dickerson explains why it can be so difficult to diagnose frontotemporal disorders, the variety of tests that can be required to diagnose FTD, and the vital role that patient- and family-reported symptoms play in the diagnosis of these conditions.

Additional details about the new clinical guidelines Dr. Dickerson described are available from the Alzheimer’s Association: https://www.alz.org/news/2024/clinical-practice-guideline-evaluation-alzheimers.

You can learn more about the scales developed by the MGH FTD Unit to assess the types and severity of a patient’s symptoms at https://ftdboston.org/research/impact/measuring-and-monitoring-symptoms/.

AFTD has developed checklists to help identify red flags for behavioral variant FTD (bvFTD), primary progressive aphasia (PPA) and FTD-ALS.  Learn more at https://www.theaftd.org/what-is-ftd/ftd-diagnostic-checklist/.

AFTD’s Partners in FTD Care is a quarterly case study, developed by a committee of clinical nurse educators, social workers, and family and professional caregivers, with contributions from outside specialists to promote greater knowledge and understanding of FTD and share best care practices. Sign up to receive Partners in FTD Care and find a library of past issues at https://www.theaftd.org/for-health-professionals/partners-in-ftd-care/.

The MGH FTD Unit clinical research program is committed toproviding the highest quality of care while we work tirelessly for a cure for FTD, atypical and young-onset forms of Alzheimer’s Disease and related neurological disorders. You can learn more about the MGH FTD Unit at www.FTDBoston.org.

We would like to thank Bernie Metzger for our beautifulmusic, an excerpt from Bernie’s composition Ramblings An FTD Journey, inspired by his wife Karen Zander’s journey with FTD.

Amy Almeida is our producer. 

Thank you to Sam Murdock for technical production assistance.

From Care to Cure is made possible by generous contributions from donors to the MGH FTD Unit.  If you would like to support our work, visit www.FTDBoston.org/Donate. 

Please follow, like and share From Care to Cure so that we can raise awareness, funds and hope that the cure of tomorrow is not so fare from the care of today.