1. Neuropsychiatric Profile as a Predictor of Cognitive Decline in Mild Cognitive Impairment
- Author
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Natalia Roberto, Maria J. Portella, Marta Marquié, Montserrat Alegret, Isabel Hernández, Ana Mauleón, Maitee Rosende-Roca, Carla Abdelnour, Ester Esteban de Antonio, Juan P. Tartari, Liliana Vargas, Rogelio López-Cuevas, Urszula Bojaryn, Ana Espinosa, Gemma Ortega, Alba Pérez-Cordón, Ángela Sanabria, Adelina Orellana, Itziar de Rojas, Sonia Moreno-Grau, Laura Montrreal, Emilio Alarcón-Martín, Agustín Ruíz, Lluís Tárraga, Mercè Boada, and Sergi Valero
- Subjects
mild cognitive impairment ,cognitive decline ,neuropsychiatric symptoms ,irritability ,apathy ,anxiety ,Neurosciences. Biological psychiatry. Neuropsychiatry ,RC321-571 - Abstract
Introduction: Mild cognitive impairment is often associated with affective and other neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS). This co-occurrence might have a relevant impact on disease progression, from MCI to dementia.Objective: The aim of this study was to explore the trajectories of cognitive decline in an MCI sample from a memory clinic, taking into consideration a perspective of isolated cognitive functions and based on NPS clusters, accounting for the different comorbid symptoms collected at their baseline visit.Methods: A total of 2,137 MCI patients were monitored over a 2.4-year period. Four clusters of NPS (i.e., Irritability, Apathy, Anxiety/Depression and Asymptomatic) were used to run linear mixed models to explore the interaction of cluster with time on cognitive trajectories using a comprehensive neuropsychological battery (NBACE) administered at baseline and at the three subsequent follow-ups.Results: A significant interaction between cluster and time in cognitive decline was found when verbal learning and cued-recall were explored (p = 0.002 for both memory functions). For verbal learning, the Irritability cluster had the largest effect size (0.69), whereas the Asymptomatic cluster showed the smallest effect size (0.22). For cued-recall, the Irritability cluster had the largest effect size among groups (0.64), and Anxiety/Depression had the smallest effect size (0.21).Conclusions: In MCI patients, the Irritability and Apathy NPS clusters shared similar patterns of worsening in memory functioning, which could point to these NPS as risk factors of a faster cognitive decline, acting as early prognostic markers and helping in the diagnostic process.
- Published
- 2021
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