Comparing Clinical Profiles in Alzheimer's Disease and Parkinson's Disease Dementia

• Main Authors: Martin R. Farlow, Frederick Schmitt, Dag Aarsland, George T. Grossberg, Monique Somogyi, Xiangyi Meng
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Karger Publishers 2013-09-01
• Series: Dementia and Geriatric Cognitive Disorders Extra
• Subjects: Alzheimer’s disease; Parkinson’s disease dementia; Rivastigmine; Alzheimerʼs Disease Assessment Scale–cognitive subscale; Alzheimerʼs Disease Cooperative Study–Activities of Daily Living scale; 10-item Neuropsychiatric Inventory; Alzheimerʼs Disease Cooperative Study–Clinical Global Impression of Change
• Online Access: http://www.karger.com/Article/FullText/351861

Background: Greater understanding of differences in baseline impairment and disease progression in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Parkinson's disease dementia (PDD) may improve the interpretation of drug effects and the design of future studies. Methods: This was a retrospective analysis of three randomized, double-blind rivastigmine databases (one in PDD, two in AD). Impairment on the Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale-cognitive subscale (ADAS-cog), Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study-Activities of Daily Living (ADCS-ADL) scale, 10-item Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI-10) and the ADCS-Clinical Global Impression of Change (CGIC) was compared [standardized difference (Cohen's d), similar if Results: Patients with AD or PDD had similar levels of impairment on the ADAS-cog and NPI-10. Scores on the ADCS-ADL scale (standardized difference = 0.47) and the ADAS-cog memory domain (total, 0.33; items, 0.10-0.58) were higher in AD; PDD patients were more impaired in the language (0.23) and praxis (0.34) domains. AD patients receiving placebo showed greater deterioration on the ADAS-cog (0.14) and improvement on the NPI-10 (0.11) compared with patients with PDD. Conclusion: Differing patterns of impairment occur in AD and PDD.