Neuropsychiatric symptoms in 921 elderly subjects with dementia: a comparison between vascular and neurodegenerative types.

Objective:\u2002 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\u2019s disease (AD); ii) to assess whether the severity and type of dementia are associated with clinically relevant neuropsychiatric symptoms (CR\u2010NPS). Method:\u2002 One hundred and thirty\u2010one out\u2010patients with VaD, 100 with DLB and 690 with AD were studied. NPS were evaluated by the neuropsychiatric inventory (NPI). Results:\u2002 Vascular dementia had lower total and domain\u2010specific NPI scores and a lower frequency of CR\u2010NPS than AD and DLB, for which frequency of CR\u2010NPS 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\u2010NPS. Conclusion:\u2002 Vascular dementia is associated less with CR\u2010NPS than AD and DLB. Frequency of CR\u2010NPS increases with disease severity in AD and, to a lesser extent, in DLB