Neuropsychiatric symptoms in behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia: a narrative review

Abstract Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is one of the most frequent forms of early-onset neurocognitive disorders worldwide. Behavioral variant FTD (bvFTD), the most common FTD phenotype, is frequently associated with neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS) such as apathy, depression, impulsivity, and repetitive behaviors that lead to diminished quality of life for patients and their loved ones. Common NPS in bvFTD are also similar to symptoms that can be present in psychiatric disorders, complicating diagnosis. The present review describes the clinical significance of NPS in bvFTD, provides guidance to psychiatrists with differentiating NPS due to bvFTD from psychiatric disorders along with an overview of tools that may aid clinical evaluations, and presents direction on future avenues of research into improving the care of patients with NPS due to bvFTD.