Psychotropic medication usage in sporadic versus genetic behavioral-variant frontotemporal dementia

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Neurology
• Pharmacology

Background:

• Psychotropic medication (PM) use is common in frontotemporal dementia (FTD).
• Behavioral-variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) shows higher PM use than other dementia types.
• Differences in PM use between sporadic and genetic bvFTD are unknown.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare psychotropic medication (PM) use in sporadic versus genetic behavioral-variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD).
• To identify neuropsychiatric symptom (NPS) combinations associated with PM use in bvFTD.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of PM prescriptions in sporadic and genetic bvFTD participants from the ARTFL/LF studies.
• Estimation of ordinal odds ratios (OOR) for PM use comparing sporadic and genetic bvFTD.
• Classification and regression trees (CART) to explore NPS combinations.

Main Results:

• 263 sporadic and 193 genetic bvFTD participants were included.
• Sporadic bvFTD patients had a significantly higher likelihood of PM use (OOR=1.75).
• Apathy and personality changes were the most frequent NPS combination (18% of participants).

Conclusions:

• Sporadic bvFTD is associated with increased psychotropic medication use compared to genetic bvFTD.
• The higher PM prevalence in sporadic bvFTD warrants further investigation.
• NPS patterns differ between sporadic and genetic bvFTD, potentially influencing treatment choices.