Neuropsychiatric Symptoms in Alzheimer's Disease: Associations with Beta Amyloid and Potential New Cutoff Points on Neuropsychiatric Assessment Scales

Abstract: Neuropsychiatric Symptoms (NPS) have been shown to be associated with Alzheimer's disease ( AD). They negatively affect disease outcome and could play a future role in the detection of prospective AD cases. In the present study we aimed at examining the rel ation between NPS and Amyloid beta ( in both a cognitively healthy N = and cognitively impaired N = 224) dataset from the Swedish BioFINDER study separately. Simple/multiple linear regressions including covariates were computed to estimate the strength of the association between NPS and Ab . ROC analyses were computed to calculate a new cutoff point on NPS scales based on positive/negative Ab status. The statistical analysis did not yield any significant results . T h e result in the cognitively healthy sample for Ab levels predicted by informant rated apathy was borderline significant. Compared to reference cutoff points on NPS scales, the newly calculated cutoff points were lower. Future research on NPS in AD should e mploy longitudinal research designs and look at comorbidities with other neurodegenerative diseases. A better understanding of NPS in AD may establish NPS as an’at risk’ state for future AD and other dementias, increase the use of NPS in the clinical setting, and thus aid in identifying prospective AD cases.