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Frequency of behavioral symptoms characterizes agitation in Alzheimer's disease
Author(s) -
Tractenberg Rochelle E.,
Gamst Anthony,
Weiner Myron F.,
Koss Elisabeth,
Thomas Ronald G.,
Teri Linda,
Thal Leon
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
international journal of geriatric psychiatry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.28
H-Index - 129
eISSN - 1099-1166
pISSN - 0885-6230
DOI - 10.1002/gps.441
Subject(s) - psychology , disturbance (geology) , operationalization , disease , cognition , clinical psychology , alzheimer's disease , psychiatry , medicine , paleontology , philosophy , epistemology , biology
This study describes two well‐characterized groups of Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients with similar levels of cognitive functioning, but with different overall behavioral disturbance levels. We sought to determine the nature of this difference—whether AD patients with higher levels of behavioral disturbance ( n = 148) differ from less disturbed AD patients ( n = 235) in terms of (a) the range of symptoms exhibited, (b) the frequency of occurrence of these symptoms, or (c) both of these. We defined and operationalized ‘diversity of behaviors’ and ‘frequency’ with respect to the item‐level responses on the Cohen‐Mansfield agitation inventory (CMAI). We found that, in these two samples of AD patients, differences occurred in the frequency of 10 out of 21 behaviors, rather than in a variety of endorsed behaviors. These 10 behaviors, observed at different frequencies in both groups, may be useful for monitoring change in studies of drugs or behavioral interventions for behavioral disturbance in persons with AD. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.