Agreement between spouses and children in descriptions of personality change in Alzheimer's disease

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the agreement among spouse s and children in their describing the current and past personality of pati ents with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and to determine the relations between t heir descriptions and selected demographic and clinical variables. The subj ects were 22 dementia out-patients who fulfilled the DSM-III-R criteria for uncomplicated dementia of the Alzheimer's type and the NINCDS-ADRDA criter ia for AD. Spouses and children of these patients were separately administe red Brooks and McKinlay's personality inventory consisting of 18 pairs of a djectives that characterize the extremes of a behavioral dimension, and wer e asked to judge where the subject's demeanor fell on a five-point scale, v arying from +2 to -2, in which zero was regarded as neutral. Spouses and ch ildren reported marked changes in most measured behavioral dimensions follo wing the onset of AD. Spouses identified significant changes on 14/18 items and children on 13/18 items. Spouses and children agreed on practically al l items concerning personality attributes before the onset of illness, and on 16/18 items after it. Changes in personality were not correlated with th e studied demographic characteristics of patients, spouses and children, no r with the cognitive deficits and illness duration of the patients.