Risk factors for neuropsychiatric symptoms in dementia: the Cache County Study

Abstract

Gender, age, dementia severity, APOE epsilon4, dementia diagnosis, time of observation, and general medical health appear to influence the occurrence of individual neuropsychiatric symptoms.

Classification of the Behavioral and Psychological Symptoms of Dementia and Associated Factors in Inpatients in Psychiatric Hospitals – with Special Reference to Rehabilitation

“…Although the influence of female gender on the factor score for affective symptoms was similar to that observed in previous studies [26], the involvement of ADL in affective symptoms was a notable finding. This finding reflects the fact that the patients in our study often presented with severe depression and difficulty with food intake which required hospitalization and intravenous nutrition.…”

Vascular factors and risk for neuropsychiatric symptoms in Alzheimer's disease: the Cache County Study

“…The finding that physical health is associated with depression in Vascular Dementia but not in AD (Ballard et al, 1996) supports this conclusion. A previous study of prevalent dementia from this population (Steinberg et al, 2006) found worse general health to be associated with agitation, irritability, disinhibition, and aberrant motor behavior. In contrast to the present focus on incident AD cases, differences in results may reflect the inclusion of other forms of dementia and greater disease severity and longer dementia duration associated with prevalent samples in the previous study.…”

“…Evidence suggests that between 60% and 90% of individuals with AD experience at least one disturbance during the course of their illness (e.g., Steinberg, 2006;Ikeda et al, 2004;Brodaty et al, 2001). They contribute to greater caregiver and patient distress (e.g., Craig et al, 2005;Danhauer, 2004), more costly interventions (e.g., Beeri et al, 2002;Finkel, 2000), and accelerated cognitive and functional decline (e.g., Boyle et al, 2003;Copeland et al, 2003;Holtzer et al, 2003).…”

“…In support of the link between depression and cerebrovascular disease are studies reporting depressive symptoms to be 1.5 to 2.5 times more prevalent in VaD than AD (e.g., Alexopoulos, 2003;Ballard et al, 2000;Lyketsos et al, 2000). Poor overall health has also been associated with NPS in AD, including depression (Chan et al, 2003), irritability, agitation, aggression, and disinhibition (Steinberg et al, 2006).…”

“…This is among the first studies to examine the vascular antecedents of NPS among individuals with AD in a population. Previous investigations with the Cache County cohort have reported prevalence rates, clustering, and risk factors for NPS in AD (Steinberg et al, 2006;Lyketsos et al, 2001;Lyketsos et al, 2000). These studies utilized the prevalence dementia sample from the Cache County Study, and the present investigation is restricted to incident AD.…”