Utility of the Neuropsychiatric Inventory Questionnaire (NPI-Q) in the assessment of a sample of patients with Alzheimer’s disease in Chile

ABSTRACT The Neuropsychiatric Inventory Questionnaire (NPI-Q) is an informant-based instrument that measures the presence and severity of 12 Neuropsychiatric Symptoms (NPS) in patients with dementia, as well as informant distress. Objective: To measure the psychometric properties of the NPI-Q and the prevalence of NPS in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) in Chile. Methods: 53 patients with AD were assessed. Subjects were divided into two different groups: mild AD (n=26) and moderate AD (n=27). Convergent validity was estimated by correlating the outcomes of the NPI-Q with Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI) scores and with a global cognitive efficiency test (Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination - Revised - ACE-R). Reliability of the NPI-Q was analysed by calculating its internal consistency. Prevalence of NPS was estimated with both the NPI and NPI-Q. Results: Positive and significant correlations were observed between the NPI-Q, the NPI, and the ACE-R (r=0.730; p<0.01 and 0.315; p<0.05 respectively). The instrument displayed an adequate level of reliability (Cronbach's alpha=0.783). The most prevalent NPS were apathy/indifference (62.3%) and dysphoria/depression (58.5%). Conclusion: The NPI-Q exhibited acceptable validity and reliability indicators for patients with AD in Chile, indicating that it is a suitable instrument for the routine assessment of NPS in clinical practice

Utility of the Neuropsychiatric Inventory Questionnaire (NPI-Q) in the assessment of a sample of patients with Alzheimer’s disease in Chile

The Neuropsychiatric Inventory Questionnaire (NPI-Q) is an informant-based instrument that measures the presence and severity of 12 Neuropsychiatric Symptoms (NPS) in patients with dementia, as well as informant distress.Objective: To measure the psychometric properties of the NPI-Q and the prevalence of NPS in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) in Chile.Methods: 53 patients with AD were assessed. Subjects were divided into two different groups: mild AD (n=26) and moderate AD (n=27). Convergent validity was estimated by correlating the outcomes of the NPI-Q with Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI) scores and with a global cognitive efficiency test (Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination - Revised - ACE-R). Reliability of the NPI-Q was analysed by calculating its internal consistency. Prevalence of NPS was estimated with both the NPI and NPI-Q.Results: Positive and significant correlations were observed between the NPI-Q, the NPI, and the ACE-R (r=0.730; p&lt;0.01 and 0.315; p&lt;0.05 respectively). The instrument displayed an adequate level of reliability (Cronbach's alpha=0.783). The most prevalent NPS were apathy/indifference (62.3%) and dysphoria/depression (58.5%).Conclusion: The NPI-Q exhibited acceptable validity and reliability indicators for patients with AD in Chile, indicating that it is a suitable instrument for the routine assessment of NPS in clinical practice.</p

The impact of culture on neuropsychological performance: A global social cognition study across 12 countries

AbstractBackgroundDecades of researches aiming to unveil truths about human neuropsychology may have instead unveil facts appropriate to only a fraction of the world's population: those living in western educated rich democratic nations (Muthukrishna et al., 2020 Psych Sci). So far, most studies were conducted as if education and cultural assumptions on which neuropsychology is based were universals and applied everywhere in the world. The importance given to sociological or cultural factors is thus still relatively ignored. With the growth of international clinical studies on dementia, we believe that documenting the potential inter‐cultural differences at stake in a common neuropsychological assessment is an essential topic. This study thus aimed to explore these potential variations in two classical tasks used in neuropsychology that are composing the mini‐SEA (Bertoux et al., 2012 JNNP), i.e. a reduced version of the well‐known Ekman faces (FER), where one has to recognize facial emotions, and a modified version of the Faux Pas test (mFP), where one has to detect and explain social faux.MethodThe data of 573 control participants were collected through the Social Cognition & FTLD Network, an international consortium investigating social cognitive changes in dementia covering 3 continents (18 research centres in 12 countries). Impact of demographic factors and the effect of countries on performance (mini‐SEA, FER, mFP) were explored through linear mixed‐effects models.ResultAge, education and gender were found to significantly impact the performance of the mini‐SEA subtests. Significant and important variations across the countries were also retrieved, with England having the highest performance for all scores. When controlling for demographical factors, differences within countries explained between 14% (mFP) and 24% (FER) of the variance at the mini‐SEA. These variations were not explained by any economical or sociological metrics.ConclusionImportant variations of performance were observed across the 12 countries of the consortium, showing how cultural differences may critically impact neuropsychological performance in international studies

Does Culture Shape Our Understanding of Others’ Thoughts and Emotions? An Investigation Across 12 Countries

Q2Q2Measures of social cognition have now become central in neuropsychology, being essential for early and differential diagnoses, follow-up, and rehabilitation in a wide range of conditions. With the scientific world becoming increasingly interconnected, international neuropsychological and medical collaborations are burgeoning to tackle the global challenges that are mental health conditions. These initiatives commonly merge data across a diversity of populations and countries, while ignoring their specificity. Objective: In this context, we aimed to estimate the influence of participants’ nationality on social cognition evaluation. This issue is of particular importance as most cognitive tasks are developed in highly specific contexts, not representative of that encountered by the world’s population. Method: Through a large international study across 18 sites, neuropsychologists assessed core aspects of social cognition in 587 participants from 12 countries using traditional and widely used tasks. Results: Age, gender, and education were found to impact measures of mentalizing and emotion recognition. After controlling for these factors, differences between countries accounted for more than 20% of the variance on both measures. Importantly, it was possible to isolate participants’ nationality from potential translation issues, which classically constitute a major limitation. Conclusions: Overall, these findings highlight the need for important methodological shifts to better represent social cognition in both fundamental research and clinical practice, especially within emerging international networks and consortia.https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9422-3579https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6529-7077Revista Internacional - IndexadaA2N

Reducing the environmental impact of surgery on a global scale: systematic review and co-prioritization with healthcare workers in 132 countries

Abstract Background Healthcare cannot achieve net-zero carbon without addressing operating theatres. The aim of this study was to prioritize feasible interventions to reduce the environmental impact of operating theatres. Methods This study adopted a four-phase Delphi consensus co-prioritization methodology. In phase 1, a systematic review of published interventions and global consultation of perioperative healthcare professionals were used to longlist interventions. In phase 2, iterative thematic analysis consolidated comparable interventions into a shortlist. In phase 3, the shortlist was co-prioritized based on patient and clinician views on acceptability, feasibility, and safety. In phase 4, ranked lists of interventions were presented by their relevance to high-income countries and low–middle-income countries. Results In phase 1, 43 interventions were identified, which had low uptake in practice according to 3042 professionals globally. In phase 2, a shortlist of 15 intervention domains was generated. In phase 3, interventions were deemed acceptable for more than 90 per cent of patients except for reducing general anaesthesia (84 per cent) and re-sterilization of ‘single-use’ consumables (86 per cent). In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for high-income countries were: introducing recycling; reducing use of anaesthetic gases; and appropriate clinical waste processing. In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for low–middle-income countries were: introducing reusable surgical devices; reducing use of consumables; and reducing the use of general anaesthesia. Conclusion This is a step toward environmentally sustainable operating environments with actionable interventions applicable to both high– and low–middle–income countries

Neuropsychiatric Symptoms in Alzheimer's Disease Are the Main Determinants of Functional Impairment in Advanced Everyday Activities

© 2019 IOS Press and the authors. All rights reserved.Background: Neuropsychiatric symptoms and cognitive impairment are independent contributors of functional impairment in activities of daily living (ADL) in Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients. ADL could be divided according to its complexity in three subdomains: basic (BADL), instrumental (IADL), and advanced (a-ADL). Objective: Studying the cognitive and neuropsychiatric determinants of BADL, IADL, and a-ADL in normal cognitive elders and AD patients. Methods: 144 subjects were graduated using the clinical dementia rating (CDR) in CDR= 0, n = 52 (control group) and 92 AD patients CDR= 0.5, n = 34 and CDR= 1&2, n = 58. They were assessed with measures of cognitive performance and neuropsychiatric symptoms that were included in regression models to measure the best predictors for each ADL subdomain at every CDR status. Results: AD patients were significantly older, and had significantly more severe functional impairment, neuropsychiat

Alzheimer's Disease or behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia? Review of key points toward an accurate clinical and neuropsychological diagnosis

Alzheimer's disease (AD) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD) are the most common neurodegenerative early-onset dementias. Despite the fact that both conditions have a very distinctive clinical pattern, they present with an overlap in their cognitive and behavioral features that may lead to misdiagnosis or delay in diagnosis. The current review intends to summarize briefly the main differences at the clinical, neuropsychological, and behavioral levels, in an attempt to suggest which aspects would facilitate an adequate diagnosis in a clinical setting, especially in Latin American and low- and middle-income countries, where the resources needed for a differential diagnosis (such as MRI or biomarkers) are not always available. A timely diagnosis of AD and FTD have significant implications for the medical management and quality of life of patients and careers

Análisis preliminar del efecto de la edad y la escolaridad en adultos sanos en el rendimiento del Sydney Language Battery (Sydbat) en español de Chile

There are 3 variants of primary progressive aphasia (APP), which are distinguished according to the predominantly altered linguistic domain: non-fluent, logopenic, and semantic. A tool that helps in its classification is the Sydney Language Battery (Sydbat), which is not validated in Chile. The objective of this work is to analyze the possible relationship between age, years of schooling and performance obtained in the Sydbat subtests in healthy adults. 38 healthy adults participated in the test. The average age was 56.8 years (SD = 8.3) and they had a mean of 13.8 years of schooling (SD = 3.9). They all came from the Metropolitan Region. Pearson and Spearman correlations were performed to explore the correlation between subtest performance, age, and schooling. Considering the variability in performance in the subtests, univariate and multivariate models were performed. Significant correlations were found between age and the comprehension subtest (pExisten 3 variantes de afasia progresiva primaria (APP), que se distinguen según el dominio lingüístico predominantemente alterado: no fluente, logopénica y semántica. Una herramienta que ayuda a su clasificación es el Sydney Language Battery (Sydbat), el cual no se encuentra validado en Chile. El objetivo del presente trabajo es analizar la posible relación entre edad, años de escolaridad y rendimiento obtenido en las subpruebas del Sydbat en adultos sanos. Participaron 38 adultos sanos a los que se les aplicó el test. El promedio de edad fue 56,8 años (DE = 8,3) y tenían una media de 13,8 años de escolaridad (DE = 3,9). Todos provenían de la Región Metropolitana. Se realizaron correlaciones de Pearson y Spearman, para explorar la correlación entre el rendimiento en las subpruebas, la edad y la escolaridad. Considerando la variabilidad en el rendimiento en las subpruebas, se realizaron modelos uni y multivariados. Se encontraron correlaciones significativas entre edad y la subprueba comprensión (

Does culture shape our understanding of others' thoughts and emotions? An investigation across 12 countries: Geographical variations of social cognition

International audienc

Does culture shape our understanding of others' thoughts and emotions? An investigation across 12 countries: Geographical variations of social cognition

International audienc