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Neuropsychiatric symptoms in Mild Cognitive Impairment

Background

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is an etiologically heterogeneous condition that is characterized by cognitive changes without impairment of activities of daily living and insufficient to represent dementia. MCI is an important risk state for Alzheimer dementia [1, 2].

Materials and methods

A total of 30 subjects, aged more than 60 years old, with either MCI (n = "16) or control group (n = 14) were studied. Neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS) were assessed using the Neuropsychiatric Inventory scale(NPI). Individual subscores of the 10 NPI symptoms and total NPI scores were compared between the MCI patients and control patients. We identified the prevalence of the symptoms in each group and differences between two groups.

Results

The most common symptoms in the MCI group were dysphoria (39%), apathy (39%), irritability (29%), anxiety (25%) and depression (%23). There were significant differences in apathy, dysphoria, irritability, anxiety, agitation, and aberrant motor behavior between the MCI and control groups. There was a significant difference between the MCI and control groups on total NPI scores (p < 0.05).

Conclusions

The significant differences between MCI and control groups according to NPI scores are important for drawing attention to both differentiating MSI and psychiatric symptoms and their comorbidity. For this reason it is important to diagnose MCI with detailed examination without ignoring psychiatric symptoms.

References

  1. Apostolova LG, Cummings JL: Neuropsychiaric manifestations in mild cognitive impairment: a systematic review of the literature. Dement Geriatr Cogn Disord. 2008, 25 (2): 115-26. 10.1159/000112509.

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  2. Hwang TJ, Masterman DL, Ortiz F, Fairbanks LA, Cummings JL: Mild cognitive impairment is associaed with characteristic neuropsychiatric symptoms. Alzheimer Dis Assoc Disord. 2004, 18 (1): 17-21. 10.1097/00002093-200401000-00004.

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Open Access This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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Algin, D.İ., Kilicoglu, A. & Ozbabalık, D. Neuropsychiatric symptoms in Mild Cognitive Impairment. Ann Gen Psychiatry 9 (Suppl 1), S166 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1186/1744-859X-9-S1-S166

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/1744-859X-9-S1-S166

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