Hyper-religiosity and visual hallucinations in a patient with frontotemporal dementia carrying a double variant in GRN gene

Abstract

Introduction: Hyper-religiosity has been reported in patients affected by frontotemporal dementia (FTD) with asymmetrical, predominantly right-sided frontotemporal atrophy. Case report: We report a FTD patient carrying a double genetic variant (p.Cys139Arg and c.*78C > T) in the progranulin (GRN) gene who showed an unusual clinical phenotype characterized by hyper-religiosity behavior and visual hallucinations with exclusively religious content. Noteworthy, this patient exhibited a slow clinical and radiological rate of disease progression and a predominantly left-sided frontotemporal atrophy. Discussion and conclusion: The simultaneous presence of these GRN variants in our FTD patient with predominant atrophy in the left (dominant) hemisphere could determine the unusual phenotype with hyper-religiosity and visual hallucinations with exclusively religious content and influence the slow rate of disease progression.

Keywords:

• Frontotemporal dementia
• progranulin
• visual hallucinations
• hyper-religiosity
• brain MRI

Acknowledgment

No funding source is associated with the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article.