UCSF researchers using app to help patients with dementia [Video]

SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS RADIO) – There is currently no cure or even any treatment for the type of early-onset dementia that Bruce Willis and Wendy Williams have been diagnosed with.

But as Dr. Adam Staffaroni, a neuropsychologist at the UCSF Memory and Aging Center, tells KCBS Radio’s Bret Burkhart on this week’s “As Prescribed,” researchers at UCSF have come up with an easy way to study its effects.

A new smartphone app for clinical trials is helping doctors at UCSF monitor people diagnosed with frontal temporal dementia, or FTD, at home.

FTD is the most common type of dementia affecting those under 65. It typically causes extreme personality shifts, anti-social behavior and overeating, and can also cause loss of language or movement disorders.

“It’s a progressive brain disease we call a neurodegenerative disease, and it’s similar to Alzheimer’s disease in that regard,” said Dr. Staffaroni. “Unlike Alzheimer’s disease, which primarily affects the memory systems of the brain, FTD causes early changes in …