Journal of Addiction Research & Therapy
Open Access

Research Article

Mood Symptoms are Related to Psychotic Symptoms in Severe Alzheimer's Disease

¹Department of Psychiatry, Showa University Northern Yokohama Hospital, Kanagawa, Japan

²Tokyo Metropolitan Tobu Medical Center for Persons with Developmental/Multiple Disabilities, Tokyo, Japan

³Department of Psychiatry, Showa University Karasuyama Hospital, Tokyo, Japan

⁴Department of Psychiatry, Showa University Fujigaoka Hospital, Kanagawa, Japan

⁵Department of Clinical Psychopharmacy, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Showa University, Tokyo, Japan

*Corresponding Author:

Koji Hori Department of Psychiatry
Showa University Northern Yokohama Hospital
35-1 Chigasakichuo, Tsuzukiku, Yokohama-City
Kanagawa, 224-8503, Japan
Tel: +81-45-949-7000
Fax: +81-45-949-7927
E-mail: kojihori@med.showa-u.ac.jp

Received October 27, 2011; Accepted January 04, 2012; Published January 08, 2012

Citation: Hori K, Konishi K, Tomioka H, Tani M, Minegishi G, et al. (2012) Mood Symptoms are Related to Psychotic Symptoms in Severe Alzheimer’s Disease. J Addict Res Ther S5:002. doi:10.4172/2155-6105.S5-002

Copyright: © 2012 Hori K, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship between cognitive dysfunction and the behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) in patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The subjects were 79 consecutive AD patients referred because of BPSD. First, we investigated the correlation between cognitive function and the severity of dementia or each symptom domain of BPSD. Then the AD patients were divided into a group with higher performance (n=40, HP group) and a group with lower performance (n=39, LP group). Subsequently, we compared BPSD between these two groups and a factor analysis of BPSD was conducted in each group. We found that disturbance of activity and disturbance of diurnal rhythm were negatively correlated with cognitive function (p<0.05), while affective disturbance was positively correlated with cognitive function (p<0.05). Factor analysis showed that a mood cluster (affective disturbance plus anxieties and phobias) was associated with a psychiatric cluster (paranoid and delusional ideation plus hallucinations) and with aggressiveness in the LP group. These results indicate that disease progress of AD infl uences the BPSD of AD patients in two ways. That is, behavioral symptoms become more severe and the mood cluster conversely becomes milder but is connected to the psychiatric cluster and aggressiveness.

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