My dad has psp, until 2 months ago he had been quiet & disinterested, now he shouts constantly like he has dementia, is this still psp?

[SharonAB]

Dear Curly-P,

My husband has gone through stages where he either did not recognise or did not seem to care whether he voice, attitude and manner was loud, projecting, and demanding then quiet and reserved. It started in year 2010, and John was diagnosed in 2007, though he clearly showed signs of PSP in 2004. Some months were good, some not so. It seems to be aimed at those who do not give him what he wants and/or at a time that he felt was relevant. It lead me to think he had a type of dementia to a point John had cognitive testing and the neurologist advised he all was OK (although testing results and further explanation were not provided). So I joined up to the Alzheimers Association - Young Carers Group for support. I was fortunate enough to meet 3 other people who had family members with PSP. Each had a slightly different story to tell, however what was very clear was that my husband was presenting symptoms no different to what each had unfortunately also encountered.

Regards,

N.B. It lead me to calling PSP - the disease of threes. During John's bouts of 'frustration and change in personalty (It's the best I can think of to describe) John also bcame more fixated on doing and finishing or buying something in groups of threes, and it would take him generally three days or three weeks or three months to return to normality - I was able to reflect back on some 'scribble I placed on a calendar to see a pattern - Yes PSP is certainly strange!

Alana - Western Australia

[Hidden]

Hi Curly-p

Sadly, PSP can progress to involve more frontal (and temporal) lobe damage. In some sufferers this will result in more personality changes, even with aggression. Shouting is certainly seen in some Alzheimer's sufferers and other dementias, but can be a part of PSP. Perhaps we should remember that PSP is connected with a damaged protein called tau, and there can be an overlap of symptoms with other diseases that have damaged tau (like a type of FrontoTemporal Dementia, Alzheimer's and CBD).

There's a good possibilty that his symptom of shouting will diminish as he goes into another phase of the disease.

(On autopsy, some PSP sufferers also showed Alzheimer's features)

Take care

T

[bryson]

hi,yes this is normal.i no its so horid to see them change so much.my dad use to laugh then cry in the same 5 mins.He did the shouting etc to but i had to remind myself this was the illness not him.

[Hidden]

Sorry it took me so long to get back but thank you all very much for your help.