Table 1.

Neuropsychiatric Symptoms (NPS) and their Descriptors

NPS	Medical Record Descriptors	NPI Comparison Category
Agitation/aggression	Combative, hitting, grabbing	Agitation / aggression
Depression	Mood disorder, suicidal ideation, mood change, depression with psychosis	Depression or dysphoria
Withdrawal/Lethargy	Decreased socialization, fatigue, social isolation, apathy, social deficit, isolating self in room, sedation	Apathy or indifference
Refusal/Resistance	Refusal or resistance	(Aggressive refusal is included in agitation/aggression category)
Psychosis/Delusions	Delusional disorder, psychosis NOS, schizophrenia, catatonia	Psychosis and Delusions are separate categories
Aberrant Motor	Wandering, behavioral disturbance, nose picking, crawling, restlessness, smearing stools, picking at skin	Motor disturbance
Sleep Disorder	Insomnia, sleep apnea, sleep wake cycle disturbance, drowsiness, awake most of night	Nighttime behaviors
Calling out	Moaning in sleep
Anxiety	Anxiety	Anxiety
Inappropriate Touching	Inappropriate touching	Disinhibition
Hypomania	Hypomania	Elation or euphoria

Note: NPS = neuropsychiatric symptoms. Descriptors found in the medical records were grouped into symptom categories. The descriptors were based upon the objective assessments of caregivers in the nursing homes. The Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI; Cummings et al., 1994), a standardized assessment tool that relies on the observations of others, uses similar symptom categories.