Consistency of neuropsychiatric syndromes across dementias: Results from the European Alzheimer Disease Consortium

Citation

Aalten P, Verhey FRJ, Boziki M, Brugnolo A, Bullock RA, Byrne EJ, Camus V, Caputo M, Collins D, De Deyn PP, Elina K, Frisoni G, Holmes C, Hurt C & Reynish E (2008) Consistency of neuropsychiatric syndromes across dementias: Results from the European Alzheimer Disease Consortium. Dementia and Geriatric Cognitive Disorders, 25 (1), pp. 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1159/000111082

Abstract
Background/Aims: The aim of this study was to determine the consistency of neuropsychiatric subsyndromes of the Neuropsychiatric Inventory across several clinical and demographic subgroups (e.g. dementia subtypes, dementia severity, medication use, age and gender) in a large sample of outpatients with dementia. Methods: Cross-sectional data of 2,808 patients with dementia from 12 centres from the European Alzheimer's Disease Consortium were collected. Principal component analysis was used for factor analysis. Subanalyses were performed for dementia subtypes, dementia severity, medication use, age and gender. Results: The results showed the relatively consistent presence of the 4 neuropsychiatric subsyndromes ‘hyperactivity', ‘psychosis', ‘affective symptoms' and ‘apathy' across the subanalyses. The factor structure was not dependent on dementia subtypes, age and gender but was dependent on dementia severity and cholinesterase use. The factors hyperactivity and affective symptoms were present in all subanalyses, but the presence of the factors apathy and psychosis was dependent on use of cholinesterase inhibitors and dementia severity, respectively. Conclusion: The present study provided evidence of the relative consistency of neuropsychiatric subsyndromes across dementia subtypes, age and gender, thereby stressing the importance of thinking about neuropsychiatric subsyndromes instead of separate symptoms. However, the subsyndromes apathy and psychosis were dependent on use of cholinesterase inhibitors and dementia severity.

Keywords
neuropsychiatric syndromes; neuropsychiatric analysis; dementia; subsyndromes; European Alzheimer's Disease Consortium

Notes
Additional co-authors: Anna Marriott, Patrizia Mecocci, Flavio Nobili, Pierre Jean Ousset, Eric Salmon, Magda Tsolaki, Bruno Vellas, and Philippe H Robert

Journal
Dementia and Geriatric Cognitive Disorders: Volume 25, Issue 1