Changes in appetite, food preference and eating habits are not as common in patients with Alzheimer's disease as they are in patients with other forms of dementia, according to British researchers.

Changes in a person's ability to feel full after eating (satiety), food preferences and eating habits are often associated with dementia.

Researchers investigated the frequency of changes in eating behaviors and the sequence of development of eating behaviors in patients with Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal dementia, using a caregiver questionnaire.

Frontotemporal dementia is a degenerative condition of the front part of the brain.

Three groups of patients were studied including 23 with frontal variant frontotemporal dementia, 25 with semantic dementia, a form of frontotemporal dementia, and 43 with Alzheimer's disease. Semantic dementia is characterized by severe disorder of semantic memory causing loss of vocabulary and general knowledge. The patients' level of education and dementia severity was similar in the three groups.

The questionnaire consisted of 36 questions regarding five areas: swallowing problems, appetite change, food preference, eating habits, and other oral behaviors.

The frequencies of symptoms in all five areas, except swallowing problems, were higher in the frontal variant frontotemporal group than in the Alzheimer's patients, and changes in food preference and eating habits were greater in the semantic dementia group than in those with Alzheimer's disease, according to the report in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry.

In patients with semantic dementia, a change in food preference developed initially, followed by an increase in appetite and altered eating habits, other oral behaviors, and finally swallowing problems.

In the patients with frontal variant frontotemporal dementia, the first symptom was altered eating habits or appetite increase.

In patients with Alzheimer's disease, the pattern was not as clear although swallowing problems developed in relatively early stages, reported the researchers.

Change in eating behavior was significantly more common in the non-Alzheimer's groups, the study concluded.

Other sources: Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry