Background
The aims of this explore the psychometric properties of the novel Italian version of the 14-item Resilience Scale (RS-14) and to assess the relationship between RS-14, mood and quality of ...life.
Method
The original English version of the RS-14 was translated into Italian, and the Italian version was confirmed with back-translation. Three-hundred healthy volunteers (
M
= 122) aged > 18 years, completed the RS-14 as well as different scales to measure depression, anxiety and quality of life. Statistical analyses were used to measure the reliability, validity and key factors of RS-14. We measured the differences in socio-demographic subgroups, the relationship between mood and RS-14 score and the impact of RS-14 on mental health.
Results
The RS-14 showed good acceptability, reliability and validity. Factor analysis indicated a two-factor structure: ‘Self-confidence’ and ‘Self-control’, with the former having a more significant impact on mental health. The RS-14 score was not significantly different for sex, age and education, but there was significant difference for marital status. Lower resilience correlated with higher levels of anxiety and depression and with lower quality of life.
Conclusion
We propose the novel Italian version of the RS-14 which has good reliability and validity. Our results stress the influence of resilience on mental health.
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EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP) patients present language disturbances in tasks like naming, repetition, reading, word comprehension and semantic association compared to Parkinson's disease (PD) ...and healthy controls (HC).
In the present study we sought to validate a Screening for Aphasia in NeuroDegeneration (SAND) battery version specifically tailored on PSP patients and to describe language impairment in relation to PSP disease phenotype and cognitive status.
Fifty-one PSP 23 with Richardson's syndrome (PSP-RS), 10 with predominant parkinsonism (PSP-P) and 18 with the other variant syndromes of PSP (vPSP), 28 PD and 30 HC were enrolled in the present study. By excluding the tasks with poor acceptability (i.e., writing and picture description tasks) and increasing the items related to the remaining tasks, we showed that the PSP-tailored SAND Global Score is an acceptable, consistent and reliable tool to screen language disturbances in PSP. However, we failed to detect major differences in language involvement according to disease phenotype. Differently, we showed that patients with dementia present worse language performances.
Taking into account specific disease features, the combination of the SAND subscores included in the PSP-tailored SAND better represents language abilities in PSP. Furthermore, we showed that language disturbances feature PSP patients irrespective of disease phenotype, but parallels the deterioration of the global cognitive function.
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DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Introduction:
The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of orthostatic hypotension (OH) on cognitive functions in patients with multiple system atrophy (MSA) followed over time.
Methods:
...Thirty-two MSA patients were enrolled and underwent a comprehensive neuropsychological battery; at baseline (T
0
) 15 out of 32 patients presented OH, assessed by means of orthostatic standing test. All patients underwent a follow-up (T
1
) evaluation 12 months after baseline. Thirteen out of 32 patients also underwent a second follow-up (T
2
) evaluation at 24 months. Changes over time on different neuropsychological tasks were compared between patients with and without OH by means of Mann-Whitney's
U
-test. Moreover, clinical categories of normal cognition, mild cognitive impairment, and dementia were determined, and changes at T
1
and T
2
in global cognitive status were compared between patients with and without OH.
Results:
At T
0
, patients with OH had better performance on words/non-words repetition task (
p
= 0.02) compared to patients without OH. Compared to patients without OH, patients with OH performed worse on semantic association task (
p
< 0.01) at T
1
and on Stroop test-error effect (
p
= 0.04) at T
2
. The percentage of patients with worsened cognitive status at T
1
was higher among patients with OH than among patients without OH (93 vs. 59%,
p
= 0.03). OH (β = −4.67,
p
= 0.01), education (β = 0.45,
p
= 0.02), age (β = 0.19,
p
= 0.03), and Montreal Cognitive Assessment battery (MOCA) score at T
0
(β = −0.26,
p
= 0.04) were significant predictors of global cognitive status worsening at T
1
.
Discussion:
We found that global cognitive status worsened at 1-year follow-up in 93% of patients with OH, and OH, along with age, education, and MOCA score, predicted cognitive worsening over time. To clarify the relationship between OH and cognitive dysfunction in MSA, we suggest the use of clinical categories of normal cognition, mild cognitive impairment, and dementia in further longitudinal studies on MSA patients with and without OH.
Objective
The Fist-Palm Test (FiPaT) is a novel non-verbal task to be used at the patient’s bedside for a cognitive functions screening. The aims of this study are to analyze (I) the qualitative and ...quantitative performance features at FiPaT, (II) the psychometric characteristics of FiPaT, and (III) the correlation between FiPat and traditional cognitive assessments in subjects with normal cognition (NC), Mild Cognitive Impairment-single domain (MCI-sd), and Mild Cognitive Impairment-multiple domain (MCI-md).
Methods
One hundred-thirteen subjects (53M/60F), with a mean age of 66.28 ± 7.22 years and 11.08 ± 4.93 years of education, were recruited and underwent a complete neuropsychological battery and FiPaT.
Results
We found 68 subjects with NC, 31 with MCI-sd, and 14 with MCI-md and a high reliability of the FiPaT (alpha =0.762). The number of FiPaT errors correlated with age and all neuropsychological tests, except for the memory recall test. Subjects with MCI had greater FiPaT errors than subjects with NC. The FiPaT, used with the MOCA test, predicted the presence of MCI, with a variance of 44%.
Conclusion
The FiPaT is an acceptable and reliable non-verbal test, able to screen for global cognitive status, attention, and executive functions, and to predict the MCI. Future studies will validate this initial findings as well as the discriminatory role of the FiPaT in detecting specific types of cognitive impairment.
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EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
Objectives
The Caregiver’s Inventory Neuropsychological Diagnosis Dementia (CINDD) is an easy tool designed to quantify cognitive, behavioural and functional deficits of patients with cognitive ...impairment. Aim of the present study was to analyse the psychometric properties of the CINDD in Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) and Dementia (D).
Design, setting and participants
The CINDD, composed by 9 sub-domains, was administered to fifty-six caregivers of patients with different types of dementia (D) and 44 caregivers of patients with MCI. All patients underwent an extensive neuropsychological assessment, the Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI) and functional autonomy scales. The reliability, convergent construct validity and possible cut-off of CINND were measured by Cronbach’s alpha (α), Pearson’s correlation and ROC analysis, respectively.
Results
The D and MCI patients differed only for age (p=0.006). The internal consistency of CINDD was high (α= 0.969). The α-value for each CINDD domain was considered acceptable, except the mood domain (α=0.209). The CINDD total score correlated with cognitive screening tests; each domain of the CINDD correlated with the corresponding score from either tests or NPI (p<0.05), except for visuo-spatial perception skills and apathy. A screening cut-off equal to 59, can be used discriminate D from MCI (Sensitivity=0.70, Specificity=0.57).
Conclusion
The CINDD is a feasible, accurate and reliable tool for the assessment of cognitive and behavioural difficulties in patients with different degree of cognitive impairment. It may be used to quantify and monitor caregiver-reported ecological data in both clinical and research settings.
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EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
Background
The evidence about the language performance profile of multiple system atrophy (MSA) is limited, but its definition may lead to a more comprehensive characterization of the disorder and ...contribute to clarify the involvement of the basal ganglia in language abilities.
Objective
The objectives of the study were: (1) to evaluate the reliability of the Screening for Aphasia in NeuroDegeneration (SAND) in MSA patients; (2) compare the linguistic profiles among MSA and Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients and healthy controls (HC), and (3) assess relationships between language impairment and cognitive status and MSA motor subtypes.
Methods and results
Forty patients with a diagnosis of MSA, 22 HC and 17 patients with PD were enrolled in the present study. By excluding the writing task that showed a poor acceptability, we showed that the MSA-tailored SAND Global Score is an acceptable, consistent and reliable tool to screen language disturbances in MSA. MSA patients performed worse than HC, but not than PD, in MSA-tailored SAND Global Score, repetition, reading and semantic association tasks. We did not find significant differences between MSA phenotypes. MSA patients with mild cognitive impairment-multiple domain presented worse language performances as compared to MSA patients with normal cognition and mild cognitive impairment-single domain.
Conclusion
The MSA-tailored SAND Global Score is a consistent and reliable tool to screen language disturbances in MSA. Language disturbances characterize MSA patients irrespective of disease phenotype, and parallel the decline of global cognitive functions.
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EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
Introduction
Movement Disorder Society (MDS) new diagnostic criteria for Progressive Supranuclear palsy (PSP) identifying different disease phenotypes were recently released. The aim of the present ...study is to report on the cognitive and behavioral features of the different phenotypes diagnosed according to the MDS criteria.
Methods
Forty-nine PSP patients underwent an extensive battery of clinical assessments. Differences between PSP subtypes were computed with
χ
2
or ANOVA tests. Using the z scores, subjects were classified as having normal cognition, mild cognitive impairment, single or multiple domain, and dementia. A logistic regression model was implemented to investigate the major determinants of PSP non-Richardson’s syndrome phenotype.
Results
Half of the cohort presented Richardson’s syndrome (46.9%), followed by PSP with parkinsonism and corticobasal syndrome (22.4% and 14.2%, respectively). Richardson’s syndrome and PSP with corticobasal syndrome presented a similar burden of disease. The only cognitive testing differentiating the phenotypes were semantic fluency and ideomotor apraxia. The majority of our cohort was either affected by dementia or presented normal cognition. Richardson’s syndrome presented the highest rate of dementia. The only marker of PSP non-Richardson’s syndrome phenotype was better performance in visuo-spatial testing, implying worse visuo-spatial abilities in PSP Richardson’s syndrome.
Conclusion
Available clinical assessments hardly capture differences between PSP phenotypes. The cognitive testing differentiating the PSP phenotypes were semantic fluency and ideomotor apraxia. In PSP, mild cognitive impairment likely represents an intermediate step from normal cognition to dementia. The only marker of PSP non-Richardson’s syndrome phenotype was better performance in visuo-spatial testing.
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EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OBVAL, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
•Psychometric properties of the Apathy Evaluation Scale-informant version in PSP.•The clinical correlates of apathy in PSP patients are described.•The AES-I is a reliable and valid tool for the ...assessment of apathetic symptoms.•Apathy may represent a marker of worse cognitive impairment at follow-up in PSP.•The standardization of apathy studies in PSP is useful for diagnosis and intervention.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Gender differences have been described in several neurodegenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease. The effects of gender on cognitive and behavioral manifestations in ...multiple system atrophy and the changes of cognitive functions over time according to gender have not been investigated so far. Fifty-five patients with a diagnosis of multiple system atrophy underwent a comprehensive neuropsychological and neuropsychiatric battery at baseline and 26 of them could be re-evaluated at 1-year follow-up. At baseline women with multiple system atrophy had poorer global cognitive state and visuo-spatial abilities, and a higher prevalence of depression and apathy than males. At follow-up, female patients deteriorated more than males on attention abilities and motor functions, and had a higher prevalence of depression than men. Executive functions and visuo-spatial abilities significantly worsened over time in both groups. Mild Cognitive Impairment single domain was significantly more frequent in females than males. Cognitive and behavioral differences between genders in multiple system atrophy involve global cognition, planning, attention, visual-perceptive skills, and depression, with female patients more compromised than males. Female patients deteriorated more than men over time as for motor functions and attention. Further longitudinal studies are deserved to confirm gender differences in progression of cognitive and behavioral features of multiple system atrophy.
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EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
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