title: Neuropsychiatric symptom profile differs based on pathology in patients with clinically diagnosed behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) is pathologically heterogeneous. With emerging therapeutics, determining underlying pathology during life is increasingly important. Neuropsychiatric symptoms are prevalent and diagnostic in bvFTD.
  
  
  METHODS
  We assessed the neuropsychiatric profile of patients with clinically diagnosed bvFTD as a function of pathology at autopsy. Patients with a clinical diagnosis of bvFTD at the initial visit were selected from the National Alzheimer's Coordinating Center (NACC) database. Neuropsychiatric symptoms endorsed on the Neuropsychiatric Inventory Questionnaire (NPI-Q) were analyzed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of 149 patients with clinically diagnosed bvFTD, pathology was primarily Alzheimer's disease (AD) in 20.5%. These patients differed from those with underlying frontotemporal lobar degeneration: patients with AD pathology (plaques and tangles) were more likely to have hallucinations, delusions, or agitation. Patients were further differentiated into tau-positive (30% of cases, including Pick's disease, FTD and parkinsonism with tau-positive or argyrophilic inclusions, and other tauopathies) or tau-negative cases (70% of cases, including bvFTD tau-negative ubiquitin-positive inclusions). These patients also differed in some of the neuropsychiatric symptoms seen. Tau-negative cases were more likely to demonstrate depression, delusions, and changes in appetite and eating.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These preliminary findings contribute to our increasing ability to predict, using simple clinical tools, the neuropathological underpinnings of bvFTD during life.
authors.affiliation: Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health, Las Vegas, Nev., USA.
authors.forename: Gabriel C
authors.initials: GC
authors.lastname: Léger
authors.forename: Sarah J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Banks
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000378:metabolism / Q000523:psychology; D001066:Appetite; D015415:Biomarkers; D016208:Databases, Factual; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D057180:Frontotemporal Dementia / Q000378:metabolism / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology; D008875:Middle Aged; D016874:Neurofibrillary Tangles / Q000473:pathology; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D058225:Plaque, Amyloid / Q000473:pathology; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016875:tau Proteins / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D016875:tau Proteins