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WELCOME

Welcome to the Posterior Cortical Atrophy (PCA) Support Group, a service which is provided by the charity Rare Dementia Support (RDS) to support people affected by Posterior Cortical Atrophy, their friends, families and healthcare professionals. The pages here provide information about: what PCA is (including causes and symptoms); advice and support, (including strategies for managing at home and useful links to other organisations) and information about previous and upcoming PCA Support Group meetings and newsletters.

ABOUT POSTERIOR CORTICAL ATROPHY

Posterior Cortical Atrophy is a rare form of dementia predominantly affecting the processing of visual and spatial information. Common first signs and symptoms include difficulties with seeing what and where things are (e.g. when driving or reading).

Posterior Cortical Atrophy means ‘back of the brain shrinkage’ and it refers to the progressive loss of neural cells, starting in the occipital and parietal lobes. These changes can be caused by a number of different underlying disease processes – the majority of cases are caused by Alzheimer’s disease (AD) (PCA is sometimes called the ‘visual variant of AD’) but PCA can also be caused by Dementia with Lewy bodies, corticobasal degeneration and others.

Symptoms usually begin before the age of 65 but it can take people a long time to get a diagnosis. Very little is known about what causes PCA to affect some people and not others or how many people are living with it, but research is ongoing.

MEETINGS

NEWSLETTERS

PCA SUPPORT GROUP TEAM

The PCA Support Group is run by a team based UCL Dementia Research Centre (DRC) as part of Rare Dementia Support, a small charity funded by the National Brain Appeal. Click here for the contact details for the PCA Support Group.

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Prof Sebastian Crutch, Neuropsychologist

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Emma Harding, Research Assistant