According to a study by the University of Eastern Finland, brain damage from past trauma can increase the risk of the disease. frontotemporal dementia.
Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is one of the most common causes of dementia in working-age people. FTD spectrum disorders, depending on the subtype, have major effects on behaviour, language function, and cognitive processing. Multiple gene mutations have been implicated in contributing to these disorders, but the non-genetic and thus preventable risk factors are unknown and rarely studied.
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According to a recent study conducted at the University of Eastern Finland, Prior traumatic brain injury may increase risk of FTDespecially in patients who do not carry the causative gene mutation.
In addition, on average, patients with head trauma appeared to develop FTD earlier than others. The researchers compared Finnish FTD patients with patients with Alzheimer’s disease and with healthy controls. The findings were reported in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.
“The results of this study suggest that traumatic brain injury may be a trigger for neurodegeneration in FTD. However, elucidation of the exact underlying mechanisms still requires further investigation.” PhD researcher and lead author of the paper, Helmi Soppela, said. University of Eastern Finland.
The research was carried out by the research team of Assistant Professor Eino Solje, which is part of the FinFTD consortium. The partners in the study are the University of Oulu and the University of Brescia.
The research was carried out with support from the Academy of Finland, the Sigrid Juselius Foundation, the Finnish Brain Foundation, the Orion Research Foundation, the Instrumentarium Science Foundation, the Finnish Health Foundation and the Maire Taponen Foundation.
