Question:medium
A patient falls down often, with behavioral change and enuresis. What is the most likely condition?
A patient falls down often, with behavioral change and enuresis. What is the most likely condition?
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Wet, wacky and wobbly: a memorable triad points straight to one CSF disorder.
Updated On: Jun 23, 2026
- Frontotemporal dementia
- Normal pressure hydrocephalus
- Parkinson's disease
- Alzheimer's disease
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The Correct Option is B
Solution and Explanation
Mnemonic-led approach: wet, wacky and wobbly is the shorthand for normal pressure hydrocephalus, that is, urinary incontinence (wet), dementia or behavioral change (wacky) and gait disturbance with falls (wobbly). The patient's frequent falls, behavioral change and enuresis map onto all three.
Rule out the distractors. Frontotemporal dementia leads with disinhibition, apathy and language breakdown rather than gait failure plus incontinence. Parkinson's disease centres on tremor, cogwheel rigidity and slowness, not early bladder symptoms. Alzheimer's disease is a memory-predominant amnestic dementia and does not produce the early gait-and-continence triad.
The complete triad therefore identifies normal pressure hydrocephalus, which is important because it is a potentially reversible cause of dementia treatable with CSF shunting.
Ref: Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus (Fritsch et al.); Oxford Textbook of Neurological Surgery.
Rule out the distractors. Frontotemporal dementia leads with disinhibition, apathy and language breakdown rather than gait failure plus incontinence. Parkinson's disease centres on tremor, cogwheel rigidity and slowness, not early bladder symptoms. Alzheimer's disease is a memory-predominant amnestic dementia and does not produce the early gait-and-continence triad.
The complete triad therefore identifies normal pressure hydrocephalus, which is important because it is a potentially reversible cause of dementia treatable with CSF shunting.
Ref: Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus (Fritsch et al.); Oxford Textbook of Neurological Surgery.
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