Changes of neuropsychiatricsymptomsin patients with dementia during COVID-19 crisis: Telephone survey from the Yangcheon Dementia Reassurance Center

ABSTRACT

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the changes in the neuropsychiatric symptoms of patients with dementia during the pandemic through the complete enumeration telephone survey in the caregivers of dementia patients who were registered at the database of Yangcheon Dementia Reassurance Center (YDRC) for Dementia. Background: It has been reported that the social isolation imposed by COVID-19 pandemic can have a major impact on the mental health of dementia patients. Design/Methods: There were a total of 2080 dementia patients on the database of YDRC who were registered as having dementia from 2008 ∼2020. From Mar to April in 2021, the telephone survey was conducted in all the caregivers with dementia on the database of YDRC. We asked whether the neuropsychiatric symptoms of patients were aggravated during COVID 19 and if they were, which neuropsychiatric symptoms were aggravated among the 12 symptoms of neuropsychiatric inventory (NPI) delusions, hallucinations, agitation/aggression, depression/dysphoria, anxiety, elation/euphoria, apathy/indifference, disinhibition, irritability/lability, aberrant motor behavior, disturbances of sleep, and disturbances of appetite/eating. Results: Among 2080 patients with dementia (mean age 81.2 years, 66.8 % females), a total of 1038 caregivers of patients with dementia responded to the telephone survey. Among 1038 patients, 274 patients (26.4%) were reported to have at least one and more aggravating neuropsychiatric symptoms, especially depression/dysphoria (44.5 %), disturbances of sleep (9.5 %), and delusion (9.1 %). Conclusions: Given that patients'neuropsychiatric worsening is commonly associated with greater burden of the caregiver's, a more preemptive strategy to manage aggravating the neuropsychiatric symptoms from the Community Dementia Reassurance can help reduce difficulties of caregivers in this pandemic situation.