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P1–227: Neuropsychiatric syndromes in dementia. Results from the European Alzheimer's Disease Consortium (EADC)
Author(s) -
Aalten Pauline
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
alzheimer's and dementia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.713
H-Index - 118
eISSN - 1552-5279
pISSN - 1552-5260
DOI - 10.1016/j.jalz.2006.05.604
Subject(s) - dementia , apathy , irritability , psychiatry , depression (economics) , anxiety , psychology , population , disinhibition , disease , cohort , clinical psychology , alzheimer's disease , medicine , cognition , environmental health , economics , macroeconomics
Background: Several factor analytic studies have been performed trying to identify the presence of neuropsychiatric syndromes in dementia. These studies led to inconclusive results due to the use of different designs, assessment tools and limited sample size. In this respect, the initiative was taken to evaluate the presence of neuropsychiatric syndromes by analyzing the largest dementia population ever studied in this regard. Objective(s): The aim of the present study was to identify neuropsychiatric syndromes of the Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI) in a large cohort of patients with dementia from several EADC centers. Methods: Twelve EADC centres, representing 12 European countries, combined data for the purpose of performing a factor analytic study of the 12-item NPI. This resulted in the inclusion of 3866 patients. Principal component analysis was used for the identification of syndromes of the NPI. Sub-analyses were performed for each country, dementia diagnosis, dementia severity, medication use, age and gender. Results: Results showed the presence of 4 factors, explaining 52% of the variance: (1) a factor including agitation, euphoria, disinhibition, irritability and aberrant motor behavior; (2) a factor including depression and anxiety; (3) a factor including delusions, hallucinations and sleep problems; (4) a factor including apathy and eating problems. Sub-analyses for dementia severity, age and gender broadly resulted in the same factor structures. About 84% of patients had a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), having the same factor structure as mentioned above. Sub-analyses per country and medication (e.g. cholinesterase inhibitors and antipsychotics) are in progress. Conclusions: The present study provides additional evidence for the existence of 4 neuropsychiatric syndromes in dementia corresponding to hyperactive (agitated) behaviours, affective behaviours, psychosis and apathy. These neuropsychiatric syndromes can give insight into possible relationships between clinical features and their underlying causal and/or risk factors. The conclusions from this large EADC dataset will lead to consensus about the presence of neuropsychiatric syndromes and allow future sub-studies related to this topic.