Monica Vitti, the unforgettable Italian actress who died in Rome, her city, on February 2 of this year, remained in everyone’s hearts. Pseudonym of Maria Luisa Ceciarelli, Vitti has withdrawn from the scene due to the deterioration of her health.
The illness from which Monica Vitti was suffering turned her off at the age of 90. The actress has worked with the greatest of cinema, from Michelangelo Antonioni to the great Alberto Sordi.
The great Monica Vitti, who died earlier this year at the age of 90, had long since left the scene, retiring to private life due to health problems. The last appearances of her who remember her date back to 2002. On her health conditions, she has always maintained a great reserve, and only a few months after her disappearance, we became aware of the disease that the ‘has plagued for years.
It is called “Lewy body dementia,” and according to medicine it is not a rare disease. It is in fact the third most common form of dementia after Alzheimer’s and vascular dementia. In Italy there are about 1 million patients suffering from dementia, and of these about 500 thousand suffer from Alzheimer’s; Lewy body dementia affects over 100,000 people.
A disease that can be confused with Alzheimer’s
Lewy body dementia, like Alzheimer’s, is characterized by cognitive impairment, but the differences between the latter and vascular dementia are many. Lewy dementia is characterized by impaired memory, orientation, and alternating confusion, unlike Alzheimer’s which sees slow and progressive cognitive decline. Those who suffer from Lewy dementia therefore alternate moments of clarity with moments of confusion.
Lewy body dementia affects both men and women, and most affects people 65 and older. Among the main symptoms are memory and attention loss, confusion, sleep difficulties, thinking, planning. But also difficulty in perceiving three-dimensional, visual and auditory hallucinations; movement problems, with slow and curved gait, precarious balance and tremors of the limbs, problems with chewing and swallowing, are symptoms in common with Parkinson’s disease.