Pick’s disease is a term used to describe what has come to be known as frontotemporal dementia (FTD), a relatively rare neurodegenerative disease that causes progressive destruction of nerve cells in the frontal and temporal areas of the brain. Pick’s disease is still used to describe a subtype of FTD. However, Pick’s disease is now most commonly used as a synonym for FTD. The two usages of the term are used interchangeably within this entry.

The name “Pick’s disease” derives from Arnold Pick, a professor of psychiatry in Prague, who first discovered and described the disease in 1892 [Page 2580]following examination of the brain tissue of a group of deceased patients with histories of dementia. In doing so, he discovered the characteristic buildups of tau protein, ...