Support being offered for Lewy Body Dementia

The changes in her mother were evident to Jean Driscoll.
For instance, there were days when her mother would seem to be dazed or in a deep sleep, and others when she was just like her old self.
“The days when she’s really with it are like little jewels,” Driscoll said.
Then one day in April while Driscoll and her physician husband, Charles, were at a national conference on geriatrics, they happened to look over some material about Lewy Body Dementia.
Like Alzheimer’s disease, the primary symptom is dementia: difficulty remembering things, planning, solving problems and thinking in an abstract or analytical way, according to the Atlanta-based Lewy Body Dementia Association.
But Lewy Body Dementia has other symptoms: hallucinations; acting out while asleep (sometimes violently); shifts in attention and concentration from day to day; and the altered movements associated with Parkinson’s disease (rigidity, tremors, shuffling gait) or falling.
While reading, Dr. Driscoll realized exactly what his mother-in-law had, his wife recalled.
The couple talked to the folks who had supplied the information, and learned there was no support group for the disease in the state of Virginia. The Driscolls were asked to start one.
So they have.
The group meets at 3 p.m. on the fourth Thursday of the month in the conference room of Centra’s Lynchburg Family Medicine Residency, lower level in The Plaza.
Having its own support group is important for several reasons, Jean Driscoll said.
First and foremost, in her words: “Many, many people have never heard of this.”
In fact, Lewy Body Dementia is “the most frequent dementia type misdiagnosed clinically, most often as Alzheimer’s,” according to information supplied by the association. Yet it is believed to account for 20 percent of dementia cases.
A number of diseases can cause dementia, the most well-known being Alzheimer’s. Another is vascular deterioration that causes a series of little strokes.
It’s important to try to figure out the cause because some antipsychotic drugs, which are often prescribed for hallucinations or for Alzheimer’s patients exhibiting disruptive behavior, can have grave consequences — even deadly ones — for those with Lewy Body Dementia, according to the association.
The support group will offer information about the disease and coping with it, and various issues that arise for those who care for or have family members with the disease.
— Susan Pugh