Unusual Dementia, Not Depression Drove Robin Williams To Suicide, Widow Says

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Two years ago America lost one of its most beloved actors when Robin Williams tragically committed suicide.

The common assumption was that severe depression drove Williams to take his own life, but as CBS2's Dr. Max Gomez explained, his widow has now revealed that it was actually an unusual type of dementia.

When most people think of dementia they think Alzheimer's, but there are other dementias and Williams suffered with a type called Lewy Body Disease.

Susan Schneider Williams revealed the diagnosis that explained the seemingly unconnected symptoms that led to her husband's suicide.

He was one of the most talented performers we have ever known with an amazing range from slapstick comedy to moving dramatic roles.

But it was in real life where Williams was privately waging a desperate struggle against a brain disease he never knew he had, and was only diagnosed after his death.

"I can tell you that in his autopsy, the coroners were clear that he had Lewy Body throughout, all over his brain and his brain stem," Susan said.

Dr. Sam Gandy an expert in neurodegenerative diseases said Lewy Body affects almost 1.5-million Americans.

"Particular substance called Lewy Bodies build up in the cortex, and they're the cause of the disease. They're clamps of protein called Ledy Bodies which causes slow degeneration of the brain-like dementia, the loss of the ability to think," Dr. Gandy said.

In an editorial for the Journal Neurology titled 'The Terrorist Inside My Husband's Brain' - Williams described Robin's final year of life. She wrote about his battle with Lewy Body Disease -- which she said drove him to suicide.

"It felt like he was drowning in his symptoms, and I was drowning along with him," she wrote.

Because Lewy Body can resemble Alzheimer's and even Parkinson's doctors often prescribe medications for those illnesses.

"The typical medication for Alzheimer's and Parkinson's can make the Lewy Body disease even worse," Dr. Gandy explained.

Williams did have bad reactions to medications as well as another hallmark of the disease.

"His fear and anxiety spiked and sustained at a level that was very scary. So, that was kind of the beginning, really, the way I see it," she said.

His widow said neither she nor anyone on his entire medical team suspected that Williams was in danger of taking his own life.

She said he was probably hiding the depth of his pain and frustration with his brain deterioration from them and even from himself.