Widow: Robin Williams Had Dementia

The widow of Robin Williams today disclosed that an autopsy revealed that the late comedian had suffered from a frequently misdiagnosed and rapidly advancing form of dementia. The New York Times reports:

“It was not depression that killed Robin,” she told People. “Depression was one of let’s call it 50 symptoms, and it was a small one.” Mrs. Williams gave the magazine an account of her late husband’s struggle with Lewy body dementia, the second-most common type of progressive dementia after Alzheimer’s disease. The disease, which is difficult to diagnose, causes a progressive decline in mental abilities, with hallucinations and muscle rigidity. The disease started taking its toll on Mr. Williams in the last year before his death, with heightened levels of anxiety, delusions and impaired movement. “They present themselves like a pinball machine,” Mrs. Williams said, referring to the symptoms. “You don’t know exactly what you’re looking at.”

The actor’s symptoms worsened in the months leading up to his death. He experienced crippling anxiety attacks, a “miscalculation” with a door that left his head bloodied, and muscle rigidity. And yet still his team of doctors could not pinpoint exactly what was wrong. Mrs. Williams said last year shortly after the actor’s death that he had been suffering from the early stages of Parkinson’s disease. But in the People article she said that doctors later discovered the Lewy body dementia when they performed an autopsy. Lewy body dementia is frequently confused with Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s disease. The symptoms can overlap, and many health care professionals remain unfamiliar with the disorder. About 1.3 million people — considerably more men than women — have Lewy body dementia, named for the scientist, Dr. Friedrich Heinrich Lewy, who identified these protein deposits in the brain.

In the days after his death, Williams was cruelly mocked by right wing figures such as Rush Limbaugh, who declared that Williams killed himself because “the hearts of leftists are full of darkness.” Fox News anchor Shepard Smith said that Williams was “such a coward” – for which he later apologized. Family Research Council vice president Peter Sprigg exploited Williams’ suicide with a call for fighting bans on ex-gay torture because since drug rehab “didn’t work” for Williams, it’s hypocritical to ban ex-gay torture and not drug rehab as well.