Bruce Willis and rare frontotemporal dementia diagnosis

After retiring from acting in March 2022 due to aphasia, actor Bruce Willis, 67, has been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia (FTD), his family announced last week. Fewer than 50,000 people in the U.S. have FTD, a group of neurodegenerative disorders linked to shrinking of the frontal and temporal anterior lobes of the brain caused by DNA changes. Symptoms, which may start to appear as an adult, can include marked changes in social behavior and personality, difficulty speaking or understanding speech, disinhibition, apathy, hyperorality, agitation, and motor syndromes.