Neuropsychiatric Symptoms in Alzheimer's Disease Are the Main Determinants of Functional Impairment in Advanced Everyday Activities

Abstract

© 2019 IOS Press and the authors. All rights reserved.Background: Neuropsychiatric symptoms and cognitive impairment are independent contributors of functional impairment in activities of daily living (ADL) in Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients. ADL could be divided according to its complexity in three subdomains: basic (BADL), instrumental (IADL), and advanced (a-ADL). Objective: Studying the cognitive and neuropsychiatric determinants of BADL, IADL, and a-ADL in normal cognitive elders and AD patients. Methods: 144 subjects were graduated using the clinical dementia rating (CDR) in CDR= 0, n = 52 (control group) and 92 AD patients CDR= 0.5, n = 34 and CDR= 1&2, n = 58. They were assessed with measures of cognitive performance and neuropsychiatric symptoms that were included in regression models to measure the best predictors for each ADL subdomain at every CDR status. Results: AD patients were significantly older, and had significantly more severe functional impairment, neuropsychiatr