title: [Neuropsychiatric symptoms in dementia and elderly people in the community: results from the Beijing Dementia Cooperative Study].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine the prevalence of neuropsychiatric symptoms in dementia and normal elderly people living in the Chinese community of Beijing.
  
  
  METHODS
  A cross-sectional study derived from the Beijing Dementia Cooperative Study was carried out a population survey was carried out on a total of 1540 participants aged 65 years and older living in Beijing city and rural areas. All the individuals and 373 demented elderly people completed a series of neuropsychological examination and the Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Among the dementia participants, 49.33% had exhibited neuropsychiatric symptoms (35.66% rated as clinically significant), in which 80.4% reported 2 or more disturbances, with depression (23.86%), apathy (21.72%) and anxiety (20.38%) being most common. Of the 1540 normal individuals, 18.25% of them exhibited neuropsychiatric symptoms (6.49% rated as clinically significant), in which 53% reported 2 or more disturbances, with sleepless (10%), depression (8.9%) and anxiety (6.97%) being the most common.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  To our knowledge, this was the first multi-center study on neuropsychiatric disturbances in dementia and cognitive normal elderly people. Neuropsychiatric symptoms occurred mainly in persons with dementia and of clinical severity. Though the neuropsychiatric disturbances reported in cognitive normal individuals were lower and less serious compared to dementia, they should not be neglected. These finding suggested that a screening programme focusing on identifying these symptoms should be included in the physician's diagnostic tools for dementia.
authors.affiliation: Geriatric Department of Neurology, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing 100853, China.
authors.forename: Heng-ge
authors.initials: HG
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.forename: Lu-ning
authors.initials: LN
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Li-juan
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Teng-xiao
authors.initials: TX
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.forename: Xiao-hong
authors.initials: XH
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Li-jun
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Xian-hao
authors.initials: XH
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Dan-tao
authors.initials: DT
authors.lastname: Peng
authors.forename: Zhen-Xin
authors.initials: ZX
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.forename: Yin-hua
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Jian-ping
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Jia
authors.forename: Xiao-ting
authors.initials: XT
authors.lastname: Guan
authors.forename: Feng
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Feng
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001007:Anxiety / Q000453:epidemiology*; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003704:Dementia / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D003863:Depression / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D015995:Prevalence; D007319:Sleep Initiation and Maintenance Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*