Robin Williams’ Widow Writes A Devastating Account Of His Final Year [View all]

Susan Schneider Williams, Robin Williams’ widow, wrote a devastating account of her husband’s final year of life before he died by suicide in 2014.

An autopsy revealed that Robin Williams had Lewy body disease, an umbrella term used to describe both Parkinson’s disease dementia and dementia with Lewy bodies. In a letter this week addressed to neurologists, Susan described the “terrorist” who lived inside her husband’s brain and caused him to forget his movie lines, plagued him with delusions and paranoia, and engulfed him in fear, anxiety and depression.

Her account of his medical journey illustrates just how difficult it is for a typical Lewy body disease patient to get properly diagnosed, how prescribed medicines for misdiagnosed conditions may have exacerbated his symptoms, and how patients who are properly diagnosed have no cure for their disease.

“I am not convinced that the knowledge would have done much more than prolong Robin’s agony,” she wrote. “Even if we experienced some level of comfort in knowing the name, and fleeting hope from temporary comfort with medications, the terrorist was still going to kill him. There is no cure and Robin’s steep and rapid decline was assured.”

Physical symptoms lead to cognitive pro