TY - JOUR
T1 - Biweekly fluctuations of neuropsychiatric symptoms according to the Neuropsychiatric Inventory
T2 - Erratic symptoms or scores?
AU - Eikelboom, Willem S.
AU - den Teuling, Amy
AU - Pol, Daphne E.
AU - Coesmans, Michiel
AU - Franzen, Sanne
AU - Jiskoot, Lize C.
AU - van Hemmen, Judy
AU - Singleton, Ellen H.
AU - Ossenkoppele, Rik
AU - de Jong, Frank Jan
AU - van den Berg, Esther
AU - Papma, Janne M.
N1 - Funding Information:
Dr. Janne Papma and Dr. Rik Ossenkoppele were supported by an Alzheimer Nederland and Memorabel ZonMw Grant 733050823 (Deltaplan Dementie).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Authors. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
PY - 2022/7/1
Y1 - 2022/7/1
N2 - Objectives: This study investigates the stability of neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS) assessed biweekly using the Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI) in a memory clinic population during a 6 week period. Methods: Twenty-three spousal caregivers (mean [SD] age = 69.7 [8.8], 82.6% female) of 23 patients (43.5% had dementia) completed all assessments. The NPI was assessed four times during 6 weeks. We examined whether NPI domains were present during all four assessments, studied within-person variation for each NPI domain, and calculated Spearman's correlations between subsequent time-points. Furthermore, we associated repeated NPI assessments with repeated measures of caregiver burden to examine the clinical impact of changes in NPI scores over time. Results: The course of NPS was highly irregular according to the NPI, with only 35.8% of the NPI domains that were present at baseline persisted during all 6 weeks. We observed large within-person variation in the presence of individual NPI domains (61.3%, range 37.5%–83.9%) and inconsistent correlations between NPI assessments (e.g., range r
s = 0.20–0.57 for agitation, range r
s = 0.29–0.59 for anxiety). Higher NPI total scores were related to higher caregiver burden (r
s = 0.60, p < 0.001), but changes in NPI total scores were unrelated to changes in caregiver burden (r
s = 0.16, p = 0.20). Conclusions: We observed strong fluctuations in NPI scores within very short time windows raising the question whether this represents erratic symptoms and/or scores. Further studies are needed to investigate the origins of these fluctuations.
AB - Objectives: This study investigates the stability of neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS) assessed biweekly using the Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI) in a memory clinic population during a 6 week period. Methods: Twenty-three spousal caregivers (mean [SD] age = 69.7 [8.8], 82.6% female) of 23 patients (43.5% had dementia) completed all assessments. The NPI was assessed four times during 6 weeks. We examined whether NPI domains were present during all four assessments, studied within-person variation for each NPI domain, and calculated Spearman's correlations between subsequent time-points. Furthermore, we associated repeated NPI assessments with repeated measures of caregiver burden to examine the clinical impact of changes in NPI scores over time. Results: The course of NPS was highly irregular according to the NPI, with only 35.8% of the NPI domains that were present at baseline persisted during all 6 weeks. We observed large within-person variation in the presence of individual NPI domains (61.3%, range 37.5%–83.9%) and inconsistent correlations between NPI assessments (e.g., range r
s = 0.20–0.57 for agitation, range r
s = 0.29–0.59 for anxiety). Higher NPI total scores were related to higher caregiver burden (r
s = 0.60, p < 0.001), but changes in NPI total scores were unrelated to changes in caregiver burden (r
s = 0.16, p = 0.20). Conclusions: We observed strong fluctuations in NPI scores within very short time windows raising the question whether this represents erratic symptoms and/or scores. Further studies are needed to investigate the origins of these fluctuations.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85132050431&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1002/gps.5770
DO - 10.1002/gps.5770
M3 - Article
C2 - 35702994
AN - SCOPUS:85132050431
SN - 0885-6230
VL - 37
JO - International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry
JF - International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry
IS - 7
ER -
