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Neuropsychiatric symptoms in 921 elderly subjects with dementia: a comparison between vascular and neurodegenerative
M Caputo1, R Monastero, E Mariani
1Section of Gerontology and Geriatrics, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy.
Objective:
i) to describe the neuropsychiatric profile of elderly subjects with dementia by comparing vascular (VaD) and degenerative dementias, i.e. dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) and Alzheimer's disease (AD); ii) to assess whether the severity and type of dementia are associated with clinically relevant neuropsychiatric symptoms (CR-NPS).
Method:
One hundred and thirty-one out-patients with VaD, 100 with DLB and 690 with AD were studied. NPS were evaluated by the neuropsychiatric inventory (NPI).
Results:
Vascular dementia had lower total and domain-specific NPI scores and a lower frequency of CR-NPS than AD and DLB, for which frequency of CR-NPS increased significantly with disease severity, particularly in AD. Logistic regression analysis showed that a higher CDR score and a diagnosis of degenerative dementia were independently associated with CR-NPS.
Conclusion:
Vascular dementia is associated less with CR-NPS than AD and DLB. Frequency of CR-NPS increases with disease severity in AD and, to a lesser extent, in DLB.
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