Managing differences: care of the person with frontotemporal degeneration.

Caring for people with non-Alzheimer's dementias is particularly challenging for families and care providers. This is especially true for those with frontotemporal degeneration (FTD) who exhibit profound changes in personality, behavior, language, and movement. Initial symptoms are often misdiagnosed as psychiatric disorders or early-onset Alzheimer's disease, and typically do not respond to pharmacological and nonpharmacological interventions designed for people with other dementias. Using individual examples, this article illustrates common features of two subtypes of FTD: behavioral variant FTD and non-fluent primary progressive aphasia.