Neil Wendy, Bowie Peter
Leeds Mental Health Teaching NHS Trust, Leeds, UK.
Int J Geriatr Psychiatry. 2008 Jan;23(1):60-4. doi: 10.1002/gps.1839.
The relationship between the behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) and negative outcomes in carers has been consistently demonstrated, however the quality of the assessment of the former in routine clinical settings is variable and validated interview-based scales are frequently underutilised.
To develop a carer self-report questionnaire, the Behavioural and Psychological Symptoms Questionnaire (BPSQ), for the assessment of the neuropsychiatric symptoms of dementia and associated carer distress.
The BPSQ was administered to the carers of 30 community-dwelling older adults with diagnoses of Alzheimer's or vascular dementia and the results compared with interview assessment using the Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI).
BPSD were present in 96.2% of patients. There was strong correlation (r(s) = 0.61, p < 0.001) between the BPSQ and interview with respect to measures of symptom frequency and severity. However, there was significant divergence between the two assessment schedules with respect to carer distress which was found to be significantly under-reported in the initial interview (U = 64.00, z = -5.22, p < 0.0001).
The BPSQ is an effective tool to complement clinical interview in the assessment and monitoring of BPSD, and provides useful additional information with respect to carer distress, which currently may be under recognised. A follow-up study is required to complete the work of validating the BPSQ.
痴呆的行为和心理症状（BPSD）与照顾者的负面结果之间的关系已得到持续证实，然而在常规临床环境中对前者的评估质量参差不齐，且经过验证的基于访谈的量表经常未得到充分利用。
开发一种照顾者自我报告问卷，即行为和心理症状问卷（BPSQ），用于评估痴呆的神经精神症状及相关的照顾者困扰。
对30名被诊断患有阿尔茨海默病或血管性痴呆的社区居住老年人的照顾者进行BPSQ问卷调查，并将结果与使用神经精神科问卷（NPI）进行的访谈评估结果进行比较。
96.2%的患者存在BPSD。在症状频率和严重程度的测量方面，BPSQ与访谈之间存在很强的相关性（r(s)=0.61，p<0.001）。然而，在照顾者困扰方面，两种评估方法存在显著差异，发现初始访谈中照顾者困扰被严重低估（U=64.00，z=-5.22，p<0.0001）。
BPSQ是在评估和监测BPSD时补充临床访谈的有效工具，并提供了关于照顾者困扰的有用补充信息，而目前这一点可能未得到充分认识。需要进行后续研究以完成BPSQ的验证工作。
