Dementia with Lewy Bodies and Parkinson Disease Dementia

Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) and Parkinson disease dementia (PDD) are overlapping clinical syndromes that tend to be managed by neurologists of differing subspecialties. In PDD, dementia arises in well-established idiopathic Parkinson disease; whereas in DLB, dementia antedates or accompanies parkinsonism. Despite this clinical distinction and differences in time course and age at onset, these diseases overlap substantially — although not completely — in cognitive, neuropsychiatric, and extrapyramidal features; response to cholinesterase inhibitors; and neuropathology. This overlap has led to debate about whether these diseases are the same entity.

The author of this review article describes clinical features of DLB and PDD, recent consen…