title: Neuropsychiatric symptoms in 921 elderly subjects with dementia: a comparison between vascular and neurodegenerative types.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  i) to describe the neuropsychiatric profile of elderly subjects with dementia by comparing vascular (VaD) and degenerative dementias, i.e. dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) and Alzheimer's disease (AD); ii) to assess whether the severity and type of dementia are associated with clinically relevant neuropsychiatric symptoms (CR-NPS).
  
  
  METHODS
  One hundred and thirty-one out-patients with VaD, 100 with DLB and 690 with AD were studied. NPS were evaluated by the neuropsychiatric inventory (NPI).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Vascular dementia had lower total and domain-specific NPI scores and a lower frequency of CR-NPS than AD and DLB, for which frequency of CR-NPS increased significantly with disease severity, particularly in AD. Logistic regression analysis showed that a higher CDR score and a diagnosis of degenerative dementia were independently associated with CR-NPS.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Vascular dementia is associated less with CR-NPS than AD and DLB. Frequency of CR-NPS increases with disease severity in AD and, to a lesser extent, in DLB.
authors: Section of Gerontology and Geriatrics, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy.
authors: M
authors: M
authors: Caputo
authors: R
authors: R
authors: Monastero
authors: E
authors: E
authors: Mariani
authors: A
authors: A
authors: Santucci
authors: F
authors: F
authors: Mangialasche
authors: R
authors: R
authors: Camarda
authors: U
authors: U
authors: Senin
authors: P
authors: P
authors: Mecocci
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D015140:Dementia, Vascular / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D018450:Disease Progression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D020961:Lewy Body Disease / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015203:Reproducibility of Results