AUTHOR=Iravani Behnam , Abdollahi Elaheh , Eslamdoust-Siahestalkhi Fatemeh , Soleimani Robabeh 

TITLE=Neuropsychiatric Symptoms of Alzheimer's Disease and Caregiver Burden

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Neurology

VOLUME=Volume 13 - 2022

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/neurology/articles/10.3389/fneur.2022.877143

DOI=10.3389/fneur.2022.877143

ISSN=1664-2295

ABSTRACT=In addition to cognitive decline, one of the most important problems faced by caregivers of Alzheimer’s patients is neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS). The aim of this study was to evaluate the NPS in AD’s patients and to investigate its relationship with caregiver burden (CB).
Methods
 In a cross-sectional study of 85 Alzheimer's patients referred to Shafa Hospital in Rasht and their caregivers in 2020, Information was collected using demographic questionnaire, Neuropsychiatric Inventory Questionnaire (NPI-Q), and the Caregiver Burden Inventory (CBI). Data were analysed by Spearman correlation, t-test, and linear regression, with SPSS version 22. 
 Results
The mean age of the patients and their caregivers were 74.95±8.87 years and 43.98±11.38 years respectively. The mean total score of NPS in patients with AD was 44.25 (0-144) and the mean CB score was 36.27 (0-96), which was at the moderate level. According to the results, 91% of patients had apathy and happiness/euphoria was reported as the most uncommon symptoms by caregivers. In addition, there was a statistically significant relationship between the score of NPS and CB (r= 0.542, p<0.0001) as well as all its sub-components, time-dependence burden with more correlation (r= 0.509, p<0.0001) and social burden with less correlation (r=0.352, p<0.001).  Among NPS, hallucination, Aberrant motor behaviour (AMB), delusion and depression had the most correlation with CB, respectively. Also, the mean score of CB was significantly higher in women than men (P=0.045). Living in the rural area had a statistically significant relationship with the score of NPS (P = 0.026). Also, linear regression showed that with increasing one year of patients' age, the mean score of the patient NPS decreased by 0.374 (P= 0.048). 
Conclusion
Neuropsychiatric symptoms especially hallucination, Aberrant motor behaviour (AMB), delusion and depression were associated with caregiver burden. Apathy was the most common symptom in patients with AD.