Robin Williams’ widow reveals that the actor, who committed suicide in 2014, suffered from Lewy body dementia. We take stock of this disease.
- Little known, Lewy body disease, also called Lewy body dementia (LCD), is nevertheless the second most common neurodegenerative dementia after Alzheimer’s disease.
- This pathology mainly affects the parts of the brain related to cognitive functions and movement.
On August 11, 2014, Robin Williams was found dead by hanging in his home. While it was said at the time that he had committed suicide because of money problems, a depressive state and his alcoholism, his widow Susan Schneider Williams has just revealed in The Guardian that the actor suffered from Lewy body dementia.
His whole brain was affected
“He kept his face in public for a long time. But, behind the scenes, we knew for a while that something was wrong. We just didn’t know how to diagnose the origin of the problem”, she says. She reveals: “The medical examiner asked me, after the forensic examination, if I was aware that my husband had Lewy body dementia. He told me that his whole brain was affected. I didn’t even know what it was yet. But it didn’t surprise me. The idea that something had taken over my husband’s thoughts actually cleared up a lot of things.”
“Everyone noticed that he had changed, but without understanding why. We had an appointment with the neurologist, because I was wondering about the diagnosis (of Parkinson’s, editor’s note) that he had been asked. But just a week before, he decided to leave this world… I think it was for fear that he would be locked up and that he would never find his freedom again”, she confides.
Second most common neurodegenerative dementia
Little known, Lewy body disease, also called Lewy body dementia (LCD), is nevertheless the second most common neurodegenerative dementia after Alzheimer’s disease. In France, nearly 200,000 people are affected by this disease, including 67% who are not diagnosed. “It is a complex disease that borrows some symptoms from Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease, so it is difficult to recognize or diagnose.precise the federation for brain research.
This pathology mainly affects the parts of the brain related to cognitive functions and movement. The symptoms include, among other things, fluctuations in cognitive performance, including variations in attention and alertness, recurrent visual hallucinations and tremors (a parkinsonian motor syndrome, editor’s note).
Associated secondary criteria
There are also secondary criteria associated with Lewy body disease. They are rarer, but they reinforce the diagnosis:
– Sensitivity to neuroleptics.
– Frequent falls.
– Syncope and/or transient loss of consciousness.
– Systematized delusions.
– Hallucinations other than visual.
– REM sleep behavior disorder.
– Depression.
Neural inclusions
Lewy bodies are neuronal inclusions carrying a protein called alpha-synuclein, the abnormal accumulation of which interrupts the messages transmitted by the brain. The various manifestations of symptoms are directly related to their distribution. Thus, when they are in the hippocampus region, memory impairment is observed. If they are localized in the associative visual areas of the posterior part of the temporal lobe, the patients are victims of hallucinations. If the Lewy bodies are concentrated in the right parietal region responsible for spatial analysis, patients have difficulty in orienting themselves. Dementia with Lewy bodies is distinguished from Alzheimer’s disease by a more marked and more rapid deterioration of mental faculties.
No specific treatments
Currently, there are no specific treatments for this neurodegenerative disorder. “The treatment of dementia with Lewy bodies is symptomatic, that is to say, it is limited to managing the symptoms, in particular hallucinations, extra pyramidal syndrome and cognitive deficit. specifies the federation for research on the brain.
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