Objective: To compare Neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS) in participants with Parkinson’s disease (PD), Parkinson’s disease with dementia (PDD), dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and healthy older adults (HOA).
Background: Neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPSs) are common in neurodegenerative diseases and present differently depending on the disease type. Identification of specific NPS profiles could be useful for clinical management or identifying individuals at risk of developing dementia subtypes.
Method: A cross-sectional sample (n=187) of participants with PD, PDD, DLB, or AD were compared with HOA; participants were from the ICICLE-PD and GaitDem studies. NPS were evaluated using the Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI), a comprehensive assessment answered by the participant’s caregiver which scores the frequency and severity of twelve common NPS, plus a total score. Backwards stepwise linear regression was used to identify which NPS symptoms were associated with NPI total.
Results: The most commonly reported symptoms were apathy in AD participants (53.6%), anxiety in DLB participants (65.4%), depression for PDD participants (55.8%), and sleep disturbances for PD participants (36.2%). There were no significant differences in NPI total score across dementia groups, although hallucinations were more frequent in PDD and DLB (p<0.001) and anxiety was more frequent in DLB (p<0.001). Regression analysis yielded four distinct NPS profiles across PD, PDD, DLB, and AD groups. The models accounted for 76.2-82.7% of the NPS variance (p<0.001 for all).
Conclusion: NPS are more common and more severe in neurodegenerative disorders compared with normal ageing. The profile of NPS associated with a greater overall psychiatric burden is unique to each disorder group. Future work should investigate how these profiles change as the disease advances. Identification of NPS profiles could identify individuals most at risk of developing dementia, support differential diagnosis, and could have utility in future clinical trials.
To cite this abstract in AMA style:
D. Smith, P. Donaghy, B. Galna, A. Yarnall, J.P Taylor, D. Burn, A. Thomas, L. Rochester, R. Mc Ardle, R. Lawson. Identifying Neuropsychiatric Profiles in Parkinson’s disease, Dementia with Lewy Bodies and Alzheimer’s disease [abstract]. Mov Disord. 2020; 35 (suppl 1). https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/identifying-neuropsychiatric-profiles-in-parkinsons-disease-dementia-with-lewy-bodies-and-alzheimers-disease/. Accessed June 15, 2025.« Back to MDS Virtual Congress 2020
MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/identifying-neuropsychiatric-profiles-in-parkinsons-disease-dementia-with-lewy-bodies-and-alzheimers-disease/