Bruce Willis has frontotemporal dementia, his family announced

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FTD is the most common cause of dementia in people under the age of 60.

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Willis announced that there is frontotemporal dementia. A form of dementia known as FTD is a reduced number of nerve cells in the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain.

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The first survivor was diagnosed with Mr. Willis, 67, prompting him to retire from acting.

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FTD is a cruel disease people have never heard of and can happen to anyone, the family wrote in a statement.

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There are two main variants of FTD. Primary progressive aphasia impairs the patient's competence. Frontotemporal dementia manifests as personality and behavior.

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Most of all it hits the parts of the brain that make us most human, said Dr Bruce Miller, professor of neurology at the University of California, San Francisco.

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Susan Dickinson, chief executive of the Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration, said FTD was the most common cause of dementia in people under the age of 60.

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There are about 50,000 people in the United States with an FTD diagnosis, he said. Many experts consider this number a vast undercount. Diagnosing it can be challenging.

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It can take patients more than 3 years to get an accurate diagnosis Ms Dickison said, What are the first symptoms of frontotemporal dementia

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Progressive people may have difficulty speaking in complete sentences or understanding conversations may have difficulty reading and writing

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Dr Ian Grant, assistant professor of neurology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, said people with the variant may act out of character with FTD.

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