Knowledge level of fronto-temporal dementia in a sample of physicians that regularly assessing patients with dementia in Lima-Peru

Physicians with specialty in geriatrics, psychiatry and neurology have not received training about the differential diagnosis of dementia, particularly regarding fronto-temporal dementia (FTD). Objective: To assess the level of knowledge of physicians about FTD. Material and Method: The survey was carried out during symposiums and scientific congresses from January 2016 to July 2017. Inclusion criteria: being a general practitioner or specialist in Geriatrics, Neurology and psychiatry whose training process as a physician and specialist has been carried out in Peruvian universities. We analyzed 217 surveys of which 13 were eliminated. The survey was divided into three parts, the first about general data of doctors, the second part was about the diagnosis of dementia; and the third on specific data of FTD. STATA version 12 was used for the statistical analysis. Results: 90% of the doctors surveyed were specialists in: Psychiatry (41.3%), Geriatrics (31.3%) and Neurology (15.4%). The 98.5% of physicians surveyed claimed to diagnose dementia. The medical specialists performed better when identifying the tests used. 72.1% of the doctors surveyed could not recognize any type of FTD, while 27.9% recognized at least 1 type of FTD. 43.8% of physicians surveyed identified 5 or more of the symptoms presented in FTD. Conclusions: The level of knowledge among medical specialists surveyed about the diagnosis of dementia is acceptable, however it is deficient when it is specifically about the diagnosis of FTD.