Background: The neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS) in patients with neurocognitive disorders (NCD) increases the risk of exhibiting significant cognitive and functional decline. However, to the best of our knowledge, few studies have evaluated to what extent the presence of chronic and early NPS impacts cognition and functionality in patients with minor or major stages of NCD.
Objective: We aimed to assess the interplay between early and chronic NPS and cognitive and functional presentation of patients with mild and major forms of NCD.
Methods: We used two NPS tools tracking early and late NPS and assessed to what extent they determine cognitive and functional outcomes in patients with mild and major forms of NCD.
Results: We found an inverse relationship between the presence of NPS, as measured by the Neuropsychiatric Inventory and Mild Behavioral Impairment Checklist (MBI-C), and cognitive and functional variables in major forms of NCD. In contrast, the minor stage of NCD was associated with increased MBI-C scores.
Conclusion: Our results revealed that NPS are associated with cognitive and functional outcomes in mild and chronic forms of NCD. Crucially our results suggest that NPS could be considered as a pathological marker of the clinical course of dementia. Additionally, our study calls to study early and late forms of NPS as both impact cognition and functionality of NCD.
Keywords: Assessment of cognitive disorders/dementia; behavioral disturbances; neurocognitive disorder; neurodegeneration; neuropsychiatric symptoms.