The Relationship of Neuropsychiatric Symptoms, Cognitive Dysfunction and Functional Decline in Older Adults

<h2>Abstract</h2><h3>Objectives</h3> Evaluating the interplay of neuropsychiatric symptoms and cognitive dysfunction on functional impairment in patients with neurodegenerative disorders is crucial for diagnosis and treatment planning. This study investigated if neuropsychiatric symptoms moderated the relationship between cognitive/functional impairment. <h3>Methods</h3> Forty-seven male Veterans (mean age 74.3 ± 9.1) completed a cognitive screener while caregivers completed functional impairment/neuropsychiatric symptom screeners. <h3>Results</h3> Cognitive dysfunction (p <0.0001) and neuropsychiatric symptoms (p = 0.0005) were significant predictors of functional impairment with the model including both neuropsychiatric symptoms and cognitive dysfunction being more predictive than the model including cognitive dysfunctional one (p = 0.0004). Importantly, the data offered no evidence of neuropsychiatric symptoms as a moderator (p = 0.416). <h3>Conclusions</h3> Though the data offered no evidence of neuropsychiatric symptoms serving as a moderator between functional impairment and cognitive dysfunction, possibly due to study design and limited sample size, it did demonstrate that neuropsychiatric symptoms and cognitive dysfunction together are better predictors of functional decline than cognitive functioning alone. Thus, assessing for the presence/severity of neuropsychiatric symptoms provides important information for patient treatment planning.