Neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS) cause distress, disabilitiy and reduced quality
of life for both the patient and their familiesOBJECTIVETo evaluate the prevalence of NPS as a specific stage of dementia status.METHODSA cross-sectional study in patients attending an outpatient clinic for
dementia was performed. We applied the Neuropsychiatric Inventory and
Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) scale. Statistical analysis was carried out
with SPSS 17 software.RESULTSThe 124 subjects (mean age of 80.4±7.0 years), 88 women (70.9%) had
average duration of dementia of 7.1±3.2 years, most common dementias
of Alzheimer's disease (35.5%) and mixed (31.5%) and most prevalent NPS of
apathy (75%) and irritability (66.9%). Correlation between apathy and a CDR
1 had a PR (prevalence ratio) = 0.289 and p<0.001while between apathy and
CDR 4-5 (PR=8.333, p<0.005). A similar result was found between aberrant
motor behavior (AMB) and CDR 1 (PR=0.352, p<0.003) and between AMB and
CDR4-5 (PR=2.929, p<0.006).CONCLUSIONAlzheimer's disease and mixed dementia were predominant, while apathy and AMB
were detected in association with the progressive stages of dementia.