[Neuropsychiatric symptoms in dementia and elderly people in the community: results from the Beijing Dementia Cooperative Study].
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.
Xie
Heng-ge
HG
Geriatric Department of Neurology, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing 100853, China.
Wang
Lu-ning
LN
Yu
Xin
X
Wang
Wei
W
Yang
Li-juan
LJ
Ma
Teng-xiao
TX
Zhang
Xiao-hong
XH
Yang
Li-jun
LJ
Xu
Xian-hao
XH
Peng
Dan-tao
DT
Zhang
Zhen-Xin
ZX
Wei
Jing
J
Wang
Yin-hua
YH
Jia
Jian-ping
JP
Guan
Xiao-ting
XT
Feng
Feng
F
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*