{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,13]],"date-time":"2026-06-13T02:46:59Z","timestamp":1781318819083,"version":"3.54.1"},"reference-count":72,"publisher":"Oxford University Press (OUP)","issue":"9","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2023,10,26]],"date-time":"2023-10-26T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1698278400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-nd\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/100000049","name":"National Institute on Aging","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["P30-AG062428"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["P30-AG062428"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100000049","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2023,11,16]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title>\n               <jats:p>In 2022, Bruce Willis\u2019 family released a statement saying that he had been diagnosed with aphasia (an acquired language impairment) and would no longer be acting. Ten months later, the Willis family released another statement indicating that he received a more specific diagnosis of frontotemporal degeneration (FTD). This resulted in an explosion of media coverage, as prominent news outlets scrambled to produce stories describing FTD to a public largely unfamiliar with the disease. The quality of these stories varied widely, and in many cases the relationship between aphasia and FTD was misrepresented, as were basic descriptions and facts about FTD. FTD refers to a class of protein-misfolding diseases that are a common cause of aphasias due to neurodegeneration, or primary progressive aphasias (PPA). Rather than describing how FTD was discovered to be the underlying source of Mr. Willis\u2019 aphasia, many reports described his aphasia as \u201cprogressing into\u201d FTD, implying they are two different disorders. Furthermore, these reports used the terminology of frontotemporal \u201cdementia\u201d rather than \u201cdegeneration\u201d, a term that invokes many stereotypes in the public imagination and may have contributed to misrepresentations in coverage. Instead of focusing on the language symptoms of PPA, reports often emphasized the personality and behavioral changes more closely associated with other variants of FTD. The substance of various facts, such as how common FTD is and how it can be treated, varied widely across reports. In sum, the media coverage of Mr. Willis\u2019 diagnosis reveals the extent to which the media and general public are uninformed about FTD and PPA. The remedy for this problem is to promote greater awareness of FTD, in both the public and the medical provider class. The Willis family\u2019s disclosure was a courageous act that helped bring much-needed attention to this disease.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1093\/geroni\/igad125","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,10,25]],"date-time":"2023-10-25T20:12:44Z","timestamp":1698264764000},"source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":6,"title":["The Media Coverage of Bruce Willis Reveals Unfamiliarity With Frontotemporal Degeneration"],"prefix":"10.1093","volume":"7","author":[{"given":"Robert S","family":"Hurley","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Psychology, Cleveland State University , Cleveland, Ohio , USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jagan A","family":"Pillai","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health, Neurological Institute, Cleveland Clinic , Cleveland, Ohio , USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"James B","family":"Leverenz","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health, Neurological Institute, Cleveland Clinic , Cleveland, Ohio , USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"286","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,10,26]]},"reference":[{"key":"2023120216155927500_CIT0001","first-page":"e2259","article-title":"Association of Mediterranean\u2013DASH intervention for neurodegenerative delay and Mediterranean diets with Alzheimer disease pathology","volume-title":"Neurology","author":"Agarwal","year":"2023"},{"key":"2023120216155927500_CIT0002","first-page":"1598","article-title":"2023 Alzheimer\u2019s disease facts and figures","volume-title":"Alzheimer\u2019s & Dementia","author":"Alzheimer\u2019s Association","year":"2023"},{"key":"2023120216155927500_CIT0003","author":"Alzheimer\u2019s Association","year":"2023"},{"key":"2023120216155927500_CIT0004","first-page":"1","article-title":"AFTD adopts new name, renews mission","volume-title":"AFTD Newsletter","author":"Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration","year":"2011"},{"key":"2023120216155927500_CIT0005","first-page":"1","article-title":"Bruce Willis announcement brings FTD awareness to millions worldwide","volume-title":"AFTD Newsletter","author":"Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration","year":"2023"},{"key":"2023120216155927500_CIT0006","volume-title":"What is FTD? 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