Hwang Inha, Baek Kyoung-Hwa, Han Jeong Ho, Ha Sang-Won, Yang YoungSoon
Department of Neurology, Veterans Health Service Medical Center, Seoul, Korea.
Department of Nursing, Gyeongbuk College of Health, Gimcheon, Korea.
Dement Neurocogn Disord. 2017 Sep;16(3):78-82. doi: 10.12779/dnd.2017.16.3.78. Epub 2017 Sep 30.
Neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS) such as anxiety, depression, and delusions affect up to 90% of all patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). NPS is associated with significant caregiver burden and patient distress. Given the severe burden of NPS in AD, it is critical to know potential modifiable risk factors of NPS in AD. This study explores the association between hypertension and NPS in patients with drug-naïve AD.
We reviewed medical records of 149 patients with AD with (=80) and without (=69) hypertension. NPS were assessed using the Korean version of Neuropsychiatric Inventory (K-NPI). Affective, psychotic, and behavior symptom clusters were assessed separately.
The total score of K-NPI was not significantly different between patients with AD with and without hypertension. Among K-NPI domains, scores of depression/dysphoria (=0.045), anxiety (=0.022), and apathy/indifference (=0.037) were significantly higher in patients with AD with hypertension. Systolic blood pressure (BP) was associated with higher total K-NPI and affective symptom cluster scores. Diastolic BP was associated with affective symptom cluster scores.
Results suggest that hypertension increases risk of specific NPS in patients with AD. Among NPS, hypertension was associated with affective symptom cluster.
神经精神症状（NPS），如焦虑、抑郁和妄想，影响着高达90%的阿尔茨海默病（AD）患者。NPS与照护者的巨大负担以及患者的痛苦相关。鉴于NPS在AD中造成的严重负担，了解AD中NPS潜在的可改变风险因素至关重要。本研究探讨了未经药物治疗的AD患者中高血压与NPS之间的关联。
我们回顾了149例AD患者的病历，其中80例患有高血压，69例未患高血压。使用韩语版神经精神科问卷（K-NPI）评估NPS。分别评估情感、精神病性和行为症状群。
患有高血压和未患高血压的AD患者的K-NPI总分无显著差异。在K-NPI各领域中，患有高血压的AD患者的抑郁/烦躁（P=0.045）、焦虑（P=0.022）和淡漠/无动于衷（P=0.037）得分显著更高。收缩压与较高的K-NPI总分及情感症状群得分相关。舒张压与情感症状群得分相关。
结果表明，高血压会增加AD患者出现特定NPS的风险。在NPS中，高血压与情感症状群相关。
