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Neuropsychiatric Symptoms in Mild Dementia with Lewy Bodies and Alzheimer’s Disease
Dementia and Geriatric Cognitive Disorders, 08/03/2012
Clinical Article
Bjoerke–Bertheussen J et al. – In mild dementia, dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) patients have more neuropsychiatric symptoms and more associated caregiver distress compared with Alzheimer’s disease (AD).
Methods- Neuropsychiatric symptoms and caregiver distress were assessed using the Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI) in mild DLB (n=57) and AD (n=126), and compared across the two groups using non-parametric tests.
- The DLB patients had a higher NPI total score (median 24 vs. 11.5, p<0.005), more numerous symptoms (median 5 vs. 4, p=0.001) and more clinically significant symptoms (3 vs. 1, p=0.001).
- They also had higher item hallucinations (6 vs. 2, p<0.005) and apathy (7 vs. 5, p=0.002) subscores. Caregivers scored higher on the NPI total caregiver distress scale (12.5 vs. 6, p=0.003).
