EVALUATION OF NEUROPSYCHIATRIC MANIFESTATIONS OF HOSPITALIZED DEMENTED PATIENTS AT «HELLENIC RED CROSS» HOSPITAL

Abstract

Dementia is a common disease with a significant impact on both the patient's relatives and society. However, it is often not so much the memory loss that creates a problem in the everyday life of the patient and his family as well as the behavioral symptoms (apathy, depression, anxiety, delirium) that accompany the disease.
The purpose of the present study was to estimate the frequency of the neuropsychiatric manifestations that often accompany the main dementia syndromes that we encounter in the daily clinical practice and the psychological burden of caregivers and thus to infer conclusions about their prevalence and their correlation with the sociodemographic characteristics and medical history of patients.
We conducted a cross-section study among 70 hospitalized demented patients and their caregivers of the Neurological and the 1st Internal Medicine Department of the «Hellenic Red Cross» Hospital. An anonymous questionnaire was used to record the patients' sociodemographic data and medical history, the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) questionnaire for assessing their cognitive health state, and the Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI) to estimate neuropsychiatric symptoms and the psychological burden of caregivers. The statistical analysis was performed with the SPSS 24.0 Statistical Package. According to MMSE 41,4% of the participants screened positive for severe dementia, 48,6% moderate and 10% mild dementia. 98,6% of the demented patients presented with at least one neuropsychiatric symptom with apathy being the most frequent and with the severity of the symptoms being greater in patients with advanced dementia. It was also observed that both acetylcholinesterase inhibitors and psychotropic drugs were associated with reduced severity of neuropsychiatric symptoms and with reduced psychological burden on caregivers.
Early identification of neuropsychiatric symptoms in demented patients and the implementation of pharmaceutical treatment may improve mental health burden for both patients and caregivers.