Though this video is 18 months old and addresses in a general way the (now old news) that actor Robin Williams had Lewy Body Dementia, I still think the video is worth watching. It’s one of the best descriptions I’ve seen of Lewy bodies. The video, titled “The Science of Lewy Body Dementia,” is about 4.5 minutes, and it’s part of the “SciShow.” Here’s a link:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIHTiY_68JI
The Science of Lewy Body Dementia
SciShow
Hosted by: Hank Green, SciShow (patreon.com/scishow)
Published on Nov 13, 2015
Description: This week in SciShow News we dissect what a Lewy Body is and what they are capable of doing.
One thing confused me about the video. The statement is made that the “autopsy of Robin Williams showed he was suffering from the early stages of Lewy Body Dementia.” And the video says that the widow of Robin Williams indicates he had no advanced symptoms. However, we know from his autopsy report that he had the most severe level of Lewy bodies in the brain one can have. And friends reported that he had delusions. But, other than that, it’s a great video!
My notes are below.
Robin
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Robin’s Notes from
The Science of Lewy Body Dementia
SciShow
Hosted by: Hank Green, SciShow (patreon.com/scishow)
Published on Nov 13, 2015
This week in SciShow News we dissect what a Lewy Body is and what they are capable of doing.
Autopsy of Robin Williams showed he was suffering from the early stages of Lewy Body Dementia.
LBD is often mistaken for PD until hallucinations begin.
There’s about a minute here on Lewy bodies and a bit about alpha-synuclein.
We only zero-ed in on the differences between Lewy Body Dementia and Parkinson’s Disease in the 1990s.
LBD is misdiagnosed so frequently — as either Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s Disease, depending on an individual’s symptoms — that is hasn’t attracted much attention.
Host says that new methods in brain tissue only allowed us to see Lewy bodies in other parts of the brain (perhaps besides the brain stem) in the 1990s.
Symptoms of LBD, which host also called advanced LBD:
* hallucinations
* loss of spatial reasoning
* sleep disorders
* cognitive and memory impairment, similar to Alzheimer’s
According to Susan Schneider Williams’s statement and the autopsy report of Robin Williams, he was not suffering from any of these advanced symptoms at the time of his death.