Excerpt
SUMMARY: According to Robin Williams’ widow, an autopsy has revealed that the comedian suffered from Lewy body dementia before he committed suicide. Susan Schneider Williams described the battle to treat and understand her late husband's symptoms as a game of Whac-A-Mole. William Brangham learns about the lesser-known but common illness from Dr. James Galvin of Florida Atlantic University.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM (NewsHour): After Robin Williams took his own life, his press representative said Williams was battling severe depression. His widow, Susan Schneider Williams, also said back then that he was struggling with depression and early stages of Parkinson’s disease
But this week, Mrs. Williams told ABC News and “People” magazine that an autopsy revealed something else. He had what is known as Lewy body dementia. She described battling a mysterious set of symptoms for a year, something she compared to playing Whac-A-Mole — quote — “They present themselves like a pinball machine,” she said. “You don’t know exactly what you’re looking at. I have spent this last year trying to find out what killed Robin, because we didn’t know. He didn’t know.”
Joining me now to help us understand more about this disease is neurologist Dr. James Galvin. He’s a professor and associate dean for clinical research at Florida Atlantic University.
Dr. Galvin, thank you for joining us.
It seems that before this news about Robin Williams broke, most of us had never heard of this disease. Can you tell me a little bit more about it?
DR. JAMES GALVIN, Florida Atlantic University: Sure.
So, Lewy body dementia may be the most common disease you have never heard of. It’s the second most common cause of memory problems after Alzheimer’s disease and affects over 1.3 million Americans. Its predominant symptoms are a progressive change in memory and other thinking functions, signs of Parkinson’s, so; slow movement, stiffness, balance problems, visual hallucinations, seeing things that aren’t there, like little people or furry little animals, fluctuations in levels of attention, concentration, and, lastly, a sleep disorder where people act out their dreams.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Among that huge array of symptoms, I’m curious about the particular visual hallucinations you described. Is that common for a certain type of dementia to have such specific hallucinations?
DR. JAMES GALVIN: It’s very common in Lewy body dementia.
Typically, if other dementias, other memory problems develop hallucinations, they’re not until much later in the course of the disease, and the hallucinations are not so well-formed.
What’s particularly characteristic of Lewy body dementia are these very well-formed hallucinations. They’re usually not frightening initially to the patient, but they are very well-formed. They usually can describe exactly what they’re seeing.
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