clinical features

Last reviewed 07/2023

The clinical features of dementia with Lewy bodies include:

  • progressive decline in cognitive function, although this is often not the presenting complaint

  • fluctuations in cognition, alertness and attention

  • transient losses of consciousness

  • psychiatric features:
    • visual hallucinations; less frequently other modalities may be involved
    • complex, systematised delusions
    • depression

  • spontaneous parkinsonism:
    • rigidity
    • bradykinesia
    • tremor
    • shuffling gait

  • hypersensivity to neuroleptic medication

  • repeated falls