Neurobehaviors and psychotic symptoms in Alzheimer's disease

Psychotic symptoms are common in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and clinicoanatom ical and neuropsychological evidence indicate an association between these symptoms and frontal lobe dysfunction. Neurobehaviors associated with front al dysfunction were assessed in Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients with (n = 20) and without psychotic symptoms (n = 21)matched for mean age, education , gender, and dementia severity. The Frontal Lobe Personality Scale (FLOPs) was completed by patient caregivers to measure behaviors typically associa ted with frontal dysfunction. Findings indicated that AD patients with psyc hotic symptoms exhibited significantly greater neurobehavioral dysfunction (FLOPs M = 130.69, SD = 24.70) than AD patients without psychotic symptoms (FLOPs M = 111.10, SD = 25.83). Subscale analyses indicated that psychotic AD patients were more disinhibited (M = 28.28, SD = 7.54) than patients wit hout psychotic symptoms (M = 20.92, SD = 4.9). Findings are consistent with and contribute to previous neuropsychological and clinicoanatomical resear ch suggesting increased frontal dysfunction in AD with psychotic symptoms a nd lend additional empirical support to subtyping AD based on the presence of psychotic symptoms. Furthermore, findings provide preliminary evidence i ndicating which specific type of neurobehavioral abnormalities are related to the presence of distressing psychotic symptoms.