I am actually a world-respected expert in dementia, particularly in the field of the frontotemporal dementia, although I have written several book chapters mainly on Alzheimer’s disease. For example, these are some publications.
Shibley Rahman, Sahakian, B.J., Robbins, T.W. (1999). Comparative studies in frontal lobe function: what they reveal about possible therapeutic strategies in frontal variant frontotemporal dementia. Dementia and Geriatric Cognitive Disorders 10 Suppl 1:15-28.
Shibley Rahman, Sahakian, B.J., Hodges, J.R., Rogers, R.D., Robbins, T.W. (1999) Specific cognitive deficits in early frontal variant frontotemporal dementia. Brain 122 (Pt 8):1469-93 [accompanied by a Wellcome Trust Press Release, August 1999 and presented at the Society for Neurosciences, Miami (1999)].
Shibley Rahman, Sahakian, B.J. (2001) Dementia. Chapter in: Textbook of Clinical Pharmacology, McGraw Hill Publishers.
Shibley Rahman, Sahakian, B.J., Gregory, C.A. (2001) Therapeutic strategies in early onset dementia. In: Early Onset Dementia (ed. J.R. Hodges). Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Shibley Rahman, Swainson, R., Sahakian, B.J. (2001) Dementia of the Alzheimer type. Martin-Dunitz.
Shibley Rahman, Robbins, T.W., Cardinal, R.N., Sahakian, B.J. (2001) The neuropsychiatry of decision-making. Trends in Cognitive Sciences Jun 1;5(6):271- 277.
Lee, A.C., Shibley Rahman, Hodges, J.R., Sahakian, B.J., Graham, K.S. (2003) Associative and recognition memory for novel objects in dementia: implications for diagnosis. Eur J Neurosci 18; 1660-1670
Deakin, J., Shibley Rahman, Sahakian, B.J., Nestor, P.J., Hodges, J.R., Robbins, T.W. Paroxetine does not improve symptoms and impairs cognition in frontotemporal dementia: a double-blind randomized controlled trial. Psychopharmacology (Berl). 2004 Apr;172(4):400-8. Epub 2003 Dec 10.
Shibley Rahman, Sahakian, B.J., Nestor, P.J., Hodges, J.R., Robbins, T.W.Methylphenidate (‘Ritalin’) can Ameliorate Abnormal Risk-Taking Behavior in the Frontal Variant of Frontotemporal Dementia. Nature (Neuropsychopharmacology). 2005 Sep 7; [Epub ahead of print]
Shibley Rahman, Griffin, H.J., Quinn, N.P., Jahanshahi, M. The factors that induce or overcome freezing. Behav. Neurol. 2008;19(3):127-36.
Shibley Rahman, Griffin, H.J., Quinn, N.P., Jahanshahi, M. Quality of life: the relative contribution of physical symptoms. Mov Disord. 2008 Jul 30;23(10):1428-34
Manes, F., Torralva, T., Shibley Rahman, Ibanez, A., Roca, M, Beckinschtein, T., Gleichgerrcht, E. Free will and decision-making in early behavioral frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD): a legal and ethical dilemma. Submitted to Brain, 2010.
Shibley Rahman, Manes, F. The cognitive neuroscience of the legal mens rea. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 2010. In preparation.
Bechara, A., Shibley Rahman, Manes, F. Position statement on frontal variant frontotemporal dementia. In preparation.
I was therefore aghast when I read this on the BBC website:
Nursing care for people with dementia is in need of a radical overhaul, a leading think tank has warned.
The King’s Fund says people with Alzheimer’s and dementia in England are having NHS-funded care withdrawn in the later stages of their illness.
The reason being is that Alzheimer’s disease is a major type of dementia; they are not two separate conditions. In other words, Alzheimer’s disease is one of very many causes of dementia, and saying ‘Alzheimer’s disease and dementia’ is very confusing and dangerous to lay-people; some people might think that Alzheimer’s disease is a later stage of dementia, for example.
It’s not the first time that the BBC has screwed up basic neuroscience. For example, it regularly screws up coverage of Huntingdon’s disease, by getting the name wrong.
Please give us a break BBC…
Dr Shibley Rahman
