Book for Lay Readers Now Available – nominated for the 2013 Governor General's Book Award

Archived Interviews about the Book's Message Hope and Healing for Family Caregivers with Dr. Gordon Atherley of Family Caregivers Unite Using Veteran's Memories of Military Careers to Connect Caring for Your Aging Parent Talk for the Toronto Public Library February 2013

New Activity Book for Child-Caregivers Aged 5-9!

Download this friendly new activity book about frontotemporal dementia, designed by Atomic Orange Productions for Co-Authors Tiffany Chow and Gail Elliot. In this case, FTD stands for Frank and Tess, Detectives! who are trying to help their mother who is affected with FTD. Plenty of colouring and puzzle activities that can also involve the patient. Sponsored by the Ontario Ministry of Health and Baycrest Alternative Funding Plan Innovation Grants.

When Dementia Is In the House: for Child-Caregivers 

www.lifeandminds.ca/whendementiaisinthehouse launched November 15th, 2011, as the first phase of our educational materials on FTD and caregiving for children living with someone who has dementia. This website features tips for parents and child caregivers gleaned from focus groups conducted with children ages 12-19 who have years of experience.

Dr. Rewilak's ABC Approach to Difficult FTD Behaviours

• FTD: Managing Challenging Behaviours
• At-Home Approaches to Patients with FTD
  At-Home Tips for FTD Caregivers from the Baycrest Mountain View Day Program

Two part video for professional care providers

January 2011 talk: What Dementia Research Can Teach Us about the Lifespan?

Related info about aging and the lifespan

Click here for access to the slides from Jan. 2011 talk

NHL Alumnus Talks about His Participation in Brain Research

When Dementia Is in the House

Early-onset dementia catches patients while they are still working and still parenting. This project, in collaboration with Dalhousie University, the Canadian Dementia Knowledge Translation Network, the Young Carers Initiative, and McMaster University's Gilbrae Centre was funded in 2011 to develop educational materials on FTD and caregiving for children living with someone who has dementia. The resulting website features content gleaned from focus groups conducted with children ages 12-19. www.lifeandminds.ca/whendementiaisinthehouse launched November 15th, 2011.
For those who cannot access the internet, informational booklets containing the web content will be distributed to organizations such as the Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration and the Alzheimer Society, courtesy of the National Initiative for the Care of the Elderly and CDKTN.

Amyloid Imaging for Frontotemporal Dementia

It is not yet known whether amyloid deposition typically associated with Alzheimer's disease is also present in older patients with FTD. We have been funded by the National Institute on Aging to use PET imaging with Pittsburgh Compound B at the Centre for Mental Health and Addiction to answer this question. To check whether you are eligible to participate, please contact minhquan_nguyen@camh.net.

Pharmacodynamics of IV Citalopram in the Elderly: An fMRI Analysis

Masters of Science candidate Christina Forsyth is studying the effects of a drug commonly used for controlling symptoms of FTD on young and older men without dementia. Using a non-invasive brain scanning technique called functional magnetic resonance imaging, this study will investigate parts of the brain that are important for emotional processing in normal healthy aging before and after taking citalopram. We will also investigate how genetic variations can impact alterations in brain function associated with mood and feeling. [Clinical Trials.gov NCT01216449]. For more information on how to participate, please download the .pdf  and contact Ms. Forsyth.

Preserving Present Moment Awareness in Dementia

Post-doctoral Fellow Norm Farb will be studying the effects of mindfulness training in patients with frontotemporal dementia and their caregivers. His doctoral thesis from the University of Toronto showed effects on control subjects and those with depression in a part of the brain hard-hit by FTD, the insula. For more information on how to participate, please download the .pdf and contact Dr. Farb.

Tracking Patients Clinically

In order to confirm the 4-stage model of dementia progression, we're tracking clinic patients' symptoms over time with the Functional Rating Scale, Clinical Dementia Rating Scale Modified for FTD by the Mayo group, Frontal Behavioural Inventory (Andy Kertesz), and Neuropsychiatric Inventory (Jeff Cummings and Dan Kaufer). Summer students are helping us contact caregivers to complete these instruments annually.

To track patients who are too advanced in illness to be measured with the MMSE, we are using the Severe Impairment Battery. Grab a Severe Impairment Battery worksheet to compare your scoring against our tutorial video below...

Download a PDF of the FTD Workgroup Algorithm 2012.