Bruce Willis’ Latest Diagnosis: Frontotemporal Dementia
The family of veteran action star Bruce Willis calls for awareness of his latest diagnosis.
Last year, veteran action star and celebrity dad Bruce Willis revealed being diagnosed with Aphasia—a brain disorder wherein the person will have difficulty processing language. The family shed light however that his “condition has progressed”, revealing that he has Frontotemporal Dementia. Unlike the usual type of dementia we see in our grandparents, frontotemporal dementia is the type that hits people younger than sixty.
What is Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD)?
Doctors call Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD) by its real name: frontotemporal lobar degeneration, specifying what the disease does. As a disease that causes the brain to degrade slowly, the damage is often found in the lobes of the brain. The brain is split into four different lobes: occipital (sight/vision), parietal (sense of direction), temporal (audio and memory), and frontal (logic and processing). FTD affects a person’s ability to process, understand sounds and contexts, and store memories.
But it’s not a disease that happens magically. According to a study done at the Department of Neurology at the University of Cambridge, there’s a mutation in a protein known as the Tau which eventually starts destroying the brain cells one by one, specifically at the Frontal and Temporal Lobe. Currently, the tendency for the protein to mutate is found in the genes but some acknowledge that head trauma can lead to that kind of disease as well.
How FTD shows itself in people?
People usually notice it when their words or their way of understanding language mess up or what the medical community calls “aphasia”. There are two major subtypes: one is agrammatic, wherein the person can’t form sentences and the other is semantic—when a person can’t understand the sentence. Bruce Willis’ aphasia is a primary progressive aphasia that unfortunately affects his ability to both make a sentence and understand it.
But with the condition now known as “dementia,” there will be times those afflicted will have difficulty in social situations. Our brains — most especially the frontal and temporal lobe — process jokes, sarcasm, and our ability to read the room, which further damage makes it harder for those who have the disease harder and eventually lose their ability to do so. Some have already cited anti-social behaviors as part of FTD’s symptoms.
Unfortunately, there is no treatment or cure for the disease.

Bruce Willis’ Family Calls For Awareness
Bruce Willis’ family revealed that while they are happy that there is some “progress” in knowing what’s affecting the celebrity, it’s still a shocking and life-changing disease. They also hope that what’s happening to Bruce will also call others to become more aware of the disease so they know how to help their loved ones if they have it.
References
Englund, B., Brun, A., Gustafson, L., Passant, U., Mann, D., Neary, D., & Snowden, J. S. (1994). Clinical and neuropathological criteria for frontotemporal dementia. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry, 57(4), 416-8.
Goedert, M., Crowther, R. A., & Spillantini, M. G. (1998). Tau mutations cause frontotemporal dementias. Neuron, 21(5), 955-958.
Kertesz, A., McMonagle, P., Blair, M., Davidson, W., & Munoz, D. G. (2005). The evolution and pathology of frontotemporal dementia. Brain, 128(9), 1996-2005.
Olszewska, D. A., Lonergan, R., Fallon, E. M., & Lynch, T. (2016). Genetics of frontotemporal dementia. Current neurology and neuroscience reports, 16, 1-15.
Snowden, J. S., Neary, D., & Mann, D. M. (2002). Frontotemporal dementia. The British journal of psychiatry, 180(2), 140-143.
Warren, J. D., Rohrer, J. D., & Rossor, M. N. (2013). Frontotemporal dementia. Bmj, 347.
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