It was precisely the difficulty and mystery surrounding Lewy body disease that attracted Papka's attention. Patients with the disease have symptoms similar to those of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's patients, helping to make the disease very difficult to diagnose. There are a lot of complicating features.
People tend to have movement disorders and psychotic features in addition to dementia.
It's almost like getting a double whammy. It's very devastating. I saw it as an area that needed attention. The disease is named for Frederick Lewy, who in the 1920s identified the brain cell structures that became known as Lewy bodies. At the University of Rochester, for example, Papka's research group includes behavioral neurologists and movement disorder specialists.