Neuropsychiatric symptoms and awareness in young-and-late-onset dementia.

OBJECTIVES

Impaired awareness and neuropsychiatric symptoms present a major challenge in managing dementia. Young-onset dementia (YOD) is a significant clinical and psychosocial issue, with specific adverse impacts. This study aimed to explore neuropsychiatric symptoms profiles and their relationship with awareness and its domains: awareness of functional activity impairments, cognitive functioning and health condition, social functioning and relationships and emotional state in YOD and late-onset dementia (LOD).

METHOD: 185 pairs of people with dementia (51 YOD and 134 LOD) and their caregivers. We assessed global cognition, dementia severity, functionality, awareness, and neuropsychiatric symptoms.

RESULTS

The YOD group was more cognitively compromised, more anxious, and presented more aberrant motor behaviors than the LOD group. However, people with YOD were more aware of their cognitive functioning and health conditions than the LOD group. Multivariate linear regressions indicated that anxiety and aberrant motor behavior had a significant relationship with awareness in people with YOD. Hallucinations and apathy impacted awareness in the LOD group.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings help clarify neuropsychiatric symptoms' influence on awareness and its domains in dementia. The age at onset and clinical symptoms interfere in the grading of how awareness and its various domains are manifested.