Very Early‐Onset Behavioral Variant Frontotemporal Dementia: A Case Report

Very early onset behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) is an uncommon clinical presentation of frontotemporal dementia (FTD). A review of the literature identified 18 patients with an onset age of 25 years or younger, with the youngest patient reported to be 14 years old. Due to its early onset and primarily neuropsychiatric symptoms, bvFTD is often misdiagnosed as a psychiatric condition. In these cases, the most commonly reported pathology is tau protein, while mutations are frequently found in the MAPT gene. This differs from typical FTD, where the most commonly reported pathology is TDP-43 protein. Although rare, it is important to consider bvFTD even in very young patients presenting with new, significant behavioral disturbances.