What does early-onset dementia mean?
Early onset occurs when dementia symptoms start before age 65. Sometimes it’s referred to as young-onset dementia. Early stage is different. It refers to severity (meaning symptoms are still mild), as opposed to the age at onset.
Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is notorious for striking people in their 30s, 40s, and 50s, devastating parents raising young children and managing the apex of their careers.
Background
The material in this section was derived from many months of qualitative research with children who were living with a parent’s dementia. Those interviews are documented by primary authors Tiffany Chow, M.D. and Katherine Nichols in “When Dementia is in the House: Needs Assessment Survey for Young Caregivers,” published in the Canadian Journal of Neurological Sciences. Based on the research, Tiffany and Katherine also created a website that was translated into three languages by collaborators who wanted to help disseminate this critical information.