Cognitive phenotype of psychotic symptoms in Alzheimer's disease: evidence for impaired visuoperceptual function in the misidentification subtype.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Establishing the cognitive phenotype of psychotic symptoms in Alzheimer's disease (AD) could localise discrete pathology and target symptomatic treatment. This study aimed to establish whether psychotic symptoms would be associated with poorer performance on neuropsychological tests known to correlate with striatal dopaminergic function and to investigate whether these differences would be attributed to the paranoid (persecutory delusions) or misidentification (misidentification phenomena +/- hallucinations) subtype.

Methods

Seventy patients with probable AD (34 psychotic and 36 nonpsychotic) were recruited to the study. Analysis of covariance was used to compare motor speed and the rapid visual processing test of sustained visual attention, after adjusting for po

SUBMITTER: Reeves SJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4988507 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature