Bruce Willis Diagnosed With Frontotemporal Dementia: What to Know About the Incurable Brain Disorder

etonline.com:

stepping back from acting last year when it was revealed that he was dealing with aphasia, Bruce Willis' neurological ailment has now progressed.Bruce's wife, Emma, ex-wife, Demi Moore, and daughters Rumer, Scout, Tallulah, Mabel and Evelyn, shared a joint statement Thursday, announcing that the celebrated movie star's condition has progressed to frontotemporal dementia, also known as FTD.«As a family, we wanted to take this opportunity to thank you all for the outpouring of love and compassion for Bruce over the past ten months,» the statement read. «Your generosity of spirit has been overwhelming, and we are tremendously grateful for it.

For your kindness, and because we know you love Bruce as much as we do, we wanted to give you an update.»So what exactly is frontotemporal dementia, and how does it manifest in those dealing with the condition?

ET spoke with Dr. Allison Reiss, an Alzheimer's Foundation of America's Medical, Scientific and Memory Screening Advisory Board Member, and she explained more about the condition.  «It's a group of diseases that have the common factor that the brain loses brain cells, brain cells die [and there is] neuro degeneration,» Reiss explains. «We don't understand why, but they die in specific areas.»According to Reiss, the «hodgepodge of different things that have been put together» leads to «a lot of devastating consequences.»FTD can be challenging to diagnose.

In Willis' case, his diagnosis came after he experienced aphasia, which is «a symptom where you have difficulty speaking.»«When a person has aphasia, we don't know why, so we look for the reason.