What is Pick's Disease?

Pick's disease is a relatively rare, degenerative brain illness that causes dementia. The first description of the disease was published in 1892 by Arnold Pick. Until recently, it was thought that Pick's disease could not be distinguished from Alzheimer's Disease during life.

Pick's Disease differs from Alzheimer's disease in several ways. First, the two diseases produce different abnormalities in the cells of the brain. Secondly, Pick's disease is usually sharply confined to the front parts of the brain, particularly the frontal and anterior temporal lobes. This contrasts with Alzheimer's disease, which is more widely distributed. The two diseases also produce different neurochemical changes in the brain.

The basic differences between Alzheimer's disease and Pick's disease are that the two tend to produce somewhat different symptoms. In contrast to Alzheimer's disease, in which early memory loss predominates, the first symptom of Pick's disease are often personality changes and a decline in function at work and home. Personality change may take the form of apathy and indifference toward customary interests, or a disregard for social decorum and for the feelings of others. Poor social judgment, inappropriate sexual advances, or a coarse and jocular demeanor may be seen. Function declines because the patient simply does very little, or displays confusion and poor judgement. Persons with Pick's may not be highly forgetful. Often times the patient performs well when directed to do something, but cannot undertake the very same thing independently. What is lost is the ability to initiate, organize and follow through on even very simple plans and familiar activities.

As the illness advances, difficulties with language become common. Persons become unusually quiet, and when they do speak it may be slowly, in brief sentences. They may labor to make the sounds of words and their speech may sound distorted. Some people become extremely apathetic - they may sit for hours doing nothing at all unless prompted to do so by another.

Pick's disease usually begins after age 40 and is less common after age 60. It is a disease that invariably worsens. The average course is about 5 years, but it ranges from 2-15 years. It is rare, accounting for between 1% and 5% of all dementias.

The diagnosis of Pick's disease is difficult during life, because it's symptoms are so variable and they overlap so much with Alzheimer's disease. In all cases, it is critical to obtain a good evaluation in order to rule out treatable conditions that can cause these symptoms.

Treatment of this disease is essentially the same as that of Alzheimer's disease: supervision and assistance for the person aimed at maximizing his or her quality of life, medications to manage particular symptoms, and emotional and substantive support for the caregiver.

For more information on Pick's Disease - please read below.

Links to information on Pick's Disease:

www.bhoffcomp.com/coping/picks.html

"Touching the Leaves" - Husband's online journal while caring for spouse with Pick's Disease

"Dementia in Pick's Disease - Clinical description and diagnostic guideline"

The WNY Chapter of the Alzheimer's Association has information on this and other memory impairing illnesses - please contact them at (716) 626-0600.

For information regarding ElderWood Senior Care, please contact (716) 633-3900.