Dementia with Lewy bodies - Symptoms

Symptoms-Dementia with Lewy bodies

Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) causes problems with mental abilities and a number of other difficulties.

The symptoms tend to come on gradually and get slowly worse over several years, although treatment can help.

Problems with mental abilities

As with other types of dementia, dementia with Lewy bodies typically causes problems with:

thinking speed
understanding
judgement
visual perception
language
memory (but significant memory loss may not occur until later on)

These problems may be constant but typically tend to come and go.

Other symptoms

There are also other symptoms of dementia with Lewy bodies that can help distinguish it from other types of dementia, such as:

marked swings between alertness and confusion or sleepiness – this can happen unexpectedly and change over hours or days
slow movement, stiff limbs, tremors (uncontrollable shaking) and shuffling when walking – similar to Parkinson's disease
seeing or sometimes hearing things that aren't there (hallucinations) – these can range from pleasant to distressing
fainting, unsteadiness and falls
disturbed sleep – this could be talking in sleep, acting out dreams or sleepiness during the day
difficulty swallowing
depression

Daily activities become increasingly difficult and there may be further health problems, such as an injury after a fall or a chest infection caused by accidentally inhaling food.

Getting medical advice

See your GP if you think you have early symptoms of dementia, especially if you're over 65 years of age.

If you're worried about someone else, encourage them to make an appointment with their GP and perhaps suggest that you go with them.

Your GP can do some simple checks to try to find out the cause of your symptoms and may refer you to a specialist for further tests.