Cognitive anosognosia and behavioral changes in probable Alzheimer's disease patients

• Autor(a) principal: Satler,Corina
• Data de Publicação: 2013
• Outros Autores: Tomaz,Carlos
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Dementia & Neuropsychologia
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1980-57642013000200197
• topic: awareness; anosognosia; insight; aging; Alzheimer's disease; dementia

ABSTRACT Anosognosia, impairment insight and unawareness of deficits are used as equivalent terms in this study. Objective: To investigate the relationship between the presence of anosognosia symptoms and cognitive domains, functional abilities, and neuropsychiatric symptoms in patients with probable Alzheimer's disease (pAD) and elderly controls (EC). Methods: Twenty-one pAD (14 women) and twenty-two EC (16 women) were submitted to a neuropsychological battery of tests assessing global cognitive status, and specific cognitive functions: memory, executive and attention functions, verbal fluency and visuoconstructive abilities. Additionally, functional abilities (FAQ) and neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPI) were measured. Results: The linear regression statistical test found general anosognosia to be associated with subjective memory complaints, age and Arithmetic-DRS in the EC group. On the other hand, cognitive and functional abilities scores (Arithmetic- DRS, IQCODE and FAQ) were the best predictors in pAD patients, particularly for behavioral awareness. Conclusion: These results indicated that different variables are associated with self-awareness for pAD patients and EC, but for both groups executive functions appear to play an important role, contributing particularly to awareness of behavioral changes.