{"doi":"10.1093/ageing/afab044","title":"Neuropsychiatric symptoms in early stage of Alzheimer’s and non-Alzheimer’s dementia, and the risk of progression to severe dementia","abstract":"BACKGROUND: Neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPSs) in early dementia have been suggested to predict a higher risk of dementia progression. However, the literature is not yet clear whether the risk is similar across Alzheimer's dementia (AD) and non-Alzheimer's dementia (non-AD), as well as across different NPSs. This study examined the association between NPSs in early dementia and the risk of progression to severe dementia, specifically in AD and non-AD, as well as across various NPSs. METHOD: This cohort study included 7,594 participants who were ≥65 years and had early dementia (global Clinical Dementia Rating [CDR] = 1). Participants completed Neuropsychiatric-Inventory-Questionnaire at baseline and were followed-up almost annually for progression to severe dementia (global CDR = 3) (median follow-up = 3.5 years; interquartile range = 2.1-5.9 years). Cox regression was used to examine progression risk, stratified by AD and non-AD. RESULTS: The presence of NPSs was associated with risk of progression to severe dementia, but primarily in AD (HR 1.4, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.1-1.6) and not in non-AD (HR 0.9, 95% CI: 0.5-1.5). When comparing across various NPSs, seven NPSs in AD were associated with disease progression, and they were depression, anxiety, apathy, delusions, hallucinations, irritability and motor disturbance (HR 1.2-1.6). In contrast, only hallucinations and delusions were associated with disease progression in non-AD (HR 1.7-1.9). CONCLUSIONS: NPSs in early dementia-especially among individuals with AD-can be useful prognostic markers of disease progression. They may inform discussion on advanced care planning and prompt clinical review to incorporate evidence-based interventions that may address disease progression.","journal":"Age and Ageing","year":2021,"id":163828,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":40,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9633,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2021-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":275024,"name":"Tau Ming Liew","orcid":"0000-0003-1555-7752","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":61,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:45:22.477398Z","pmid":"33770167","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}