Longitudinal change in everyday function and behavioral symptoms in frontotemporal dementia

O'Connor, Claire M., Clemson, Lindy, Hornberger, Michael ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2214-3788, Leyton, Cristian E., Hodges, John R., Piguet, Olivier and Mioshi, Eneida (2016) Longitudinal change in everyday function and behavioral symptoms in frontotemporal dementia. Neurology: Clinical Practice, 6 (5). pp. 419-428. ISSN 2163-0402

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Abstract

Background: The relationship between behavioral changes and functional decline in frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is not well understood. Methods: Thirty-nine patients (21 behavioral variant FTD [bvFTD], 18 semantic variant primary progressive aphasia [svPPA]) were followed up longitudinally (2–4 years follow-up). Functional (Disability Assessment for Dementia) and behavioral (Cambridge Behavioural Inventory Revised) assessments were included for between-group (pairwise comparisons, mixed model analysis) and within-group analyses (bivariate correlations). Results: Functionally, patients with bvFTD were more impaired than patients with svPPA at baseline and continued to be at follow-up, despite similar disease duration. By contrast, behavioral impairments differed between patient groups at baseline and at follow-up. At baseline, patients with bvFTD exhibited higher levels of apathy and changes in eating than patients with svPPA; disinhibited and stereotypical behaviors were similar. Over the years, patients with bvFTD showed reduction in disinhibition and stereotypical behavior while apathy and eating changes increased. By contrast, all measured behaviors increased in patients with svPPA over time. Finally, only apathy made longitudinal contributions to functional disability in patients with svPPA, whereas apathy and stereotypical behavior were associated with increased disability in patients with bvFTD. Conclusions: Despite shared overlapping baseline behavioral symptoms, patients with bvFTD are more functionally impaired than patients with svPPA. Apathy has a strong role in disability for both bvFTD and svPPA, but stereotypical behaviors only contributed to functional deficits in patients with bvFTD. Our findings suggest that rigid/compulsive behaviors may in fact support activity engagement in patients with svPPA. Taken together, our results indicate that interventions to reduce disability in the FTD spectrum require an alternative rationale in comparison to Alzheimer disease dementia, and should carefully weigh the interaction of behavioral symptoms and functional status.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND), which permits downloading and sharing the work provided it is properly cited. The work cannot be changed in any way or used commercially.
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Norwich Medical School Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > School of Health Sciences
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Groups > Mental Health Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Groups > Dementia & Complexity in Later Life Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Centres > Lifespan Health
Depositing User:	Pure Connector
Date Deposited:	24 Sep 2016 00:00
Last Modified:	19 Oct 2023 01:43
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/59765
DOI:	10.1212/CPJ.0000000000000264

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