Raising Awareness About Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD), a Genetic Form of Dementia

Dr. Andrea Bozoki, Division Chief and Professor of Memory and Cognitive Disorders at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Susan Dickinson, CEO of the Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration (AFTD) discuss frontotemporal dementia (FTD), a rare neurodegenerative disease that strikes people in their 40’s and 50’s, is the most common dementia among people under 60, and is often misdiagnosed as a mental illness. They talk about symptoms, diagnosis, testing, and treatment options.

Dr. Andrea Bozoki currently leads the Division of Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology at UNC Chapel Hill. She is a fellowship-trained geriatric and cognitive neurologist with over 25 years’ experience as a sub-specialist, caring predominantly for patients with Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative causes of dementia. In her role as a Neurology Division Chief, she has developed and trained a clinical team that cares for over 800 individuals with dementia annually. She is also an expert on the use of imaging biomarkers for the evaluation of individuals with cognitive decline, and has directed numerous clinical trials targeting treatment of mild cognitive impairment and various dementia populations. From 2001-2019, she was on the faculty of Michigan State University ,where she was a co-investigator and Executive Board member of the cross-state collaborative Michigan Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center. Since arriving at UNC in 2020, she has taken a leadership role for the Outreach, Recruitment and Engagement Core of the newly NIH funded UNC-Duke Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center and the statewide North Carolina Registry for Brain Health. She also heads the UNC site of the national NIH funded ALL-FTD project focusing on frontotemporal dementia, and a similar longitudinal consortium project of individuals with Lewy Body Disease. Through her work on these projects, Dr. Bozoki has become an outspoken champion for the importance of participating in research, which means talking not only to patients but to their families, caregivers and communities.