Table 2.
BPSD and dementia severity: cross-sectional studies.
| Reference | Sample | Findings |
|---|---|---|
| Aalten et al. (2008) | 2808 AD patients (outpatient clinic) | Psychosis and hyperactivity co-occurred more often in more severe stages of dementia. |
| Cheng et al. (2009) | 138 (outpatient clinic) +173 (long-term care) AD patients | Severity of delusion/paranoid ideation, hallucination, activity disturbances, aggressiveness, diurnal rhythm disturbance and behavioral problems significantly associated with severity of dementia. |
| Craig et al. (2005) | 435 AD patients (hospital) | Depression/dysphoria and apathy/indifference more frequent in less severe dementia; hallucinations, elation/euphoria, and aberrant motor behavior more frequent in severe dementia. Apathy was the most persistent symptom; psychotic symptoms, delusions, and hallucinations exhibited the most rapid disappearance over time. |
| Di Iulio et al. (2010) | 119 AD + 68 multidomain-MCI + 58 amnestic-MCI + 107 controls | Apathy more prevalent with increasing severity of cognitive syndromes (amnestic-MCI to multidomain-MCI, to AD). Depression prevalence increased from amnestic-MCI to multidomain-MCI, but not with dementia. No association with night-time disturbances. |
| Fernández Martínez et al. (2008a) | 37 AD + 28 VaD patients (hospital, outpatient clinic) | Behavioral changes without correlation with severity of dementia in AD. Severity of delusions, hallucinations, aggression, irritability, aberrant motor behavior, night-time behavior and appetite changes correlated to cognitive decline in VaD. |
| Fernández Martínez et al. (2008b) | 81 AD + 14 VaD + 10 PLBD + 3FTD (community) | Prevalence of neuropsychiatric symptoms increased with dementia severity, but was not statistically significant. |
| Fernandez-Martinez et al. (2010) | 344 AD + 91 MCI + 50 controls (hospital, outpatient clinic) | All behavioral disorders increased with cognitive impairment, except for sleep and appetite disorders. |
| Fuh et al. (2005) | 320 AD + 212 VaD patients (hospital, outpatient clinic) | Delusions, hallucinations, and aberrant motor activities more common in later stages in both AD and subcortical VaD. |
| García-Alberca et al. (2010) | 125 AD patients (outpatient clinic) | No predictive value for MMSE in BPSD. |
| Geda et al. (2004) | 87 AD + 54 MCI + 514 controls | Total NPI scores significantly different among the 3 groups. |
| Lopez et al. (2003) | 1155 AD patients | Psychiatric symptoms, except major depression, more frequent in more severe stages of the dementia. |
| Lövheim et al. (2008) | 3040 residents in geriatric care centers | Higher prevalence rates of BPSD in the middle stages of dementia. Passiveness increased linearly with the severity of cognitive impairment. |
| Lyketsos et al. (2000) | 329 dementia patients (community) | Severity of dementia associated with increased prevalence of agitation/aggression (13% in mild dementia, 24% in moderate dementia, and 29% in severe dementia) and aberrant motor behavior (9% in mild, 17% in moderate, and 19% in severe dementia). |
| Matsui et al. (2006) | 140 AD patients (outpatient clinic) | Psychosis and agitated behaviors co-occurred with dementia progression. |
| Spalletta et al. (2010) | 1015 AD patients (outpatient clinic) | Poor association between cognitive deficits and severity of BPSD symptoms. |
| Thompson et al. (2010) | 377 AD + 74 VaD patients (outpatient clinic) | Association between severity of BPSD and severity of dementia |
| Youn et al. (2011) | 216 AD patients (hospital, outpatient clinic) | Neuropsychiatric symptoms more frequent in moderate-to-severe stages of AD, except loss of enjoyment and social withdrawal (more frequent in mild stages). Frequencies of all neuropsychiatric syndromes significantly different in relation to the severity of disease, except for vegetative symptom. Inertia showed the highest frequency in mild stages. |
| Zuidema et al. (2010) | 1289 dementia patients (nursing homes) | Dementia severity predicted physically aggressive behavior and apathy, with higher prevalence in more severe stages of dementia. |
NPI, neuropsychiatric inventory; BPSD, behavior and psychological symptoms of dementia; MCI, mild cognitive impairment; AD, Alzheimer disease; VaD, vascular dementia; RAVLT, Rey auditory verbal learning test; TMT, trail-making test; MMSE, mini mental state examination; PLBD, Parkinson–Lewy body dementia.