Symptom Clusters of Neuropsychiatric Symptoms in Mild Cognitive Impairment and Their Comparative Risks of Dementia: A Cohort Study of 8530 Older Persons.

The sample was made up of people who volunteered at Alzheimer's Disease Centers, so it may represent patients who seek care rather than all people with mild cognitive impairment. Participants were mostly White and highly educated, so the risk estimates may not apply to other ethnic or education groups. 30.2% of participants had only baseline data and no follow-up data, although the researchers used weighting to account for missing follow-up. Not all diagnoses were made by consensus conference; some were made by single clinicians. Most dementia cases were Alzheimer's dementia, so the results may not apply to other causes of dementia. The NPI-Q asked whether symptoms were present in the past month, so it did not measure symptom severity or change over time. No treatment was tested, so the study cannot show that treating affective or psychotic symptoms prevents dementia.

The authors declared no conflict of interest. The publication types list non-U.S. government research support.

Do not conclude that agitation, irritability, or disinhibition are unimportant in dementia care. The study only showed they were not independently associated with incident dementia when affective and psychotic symptoms were included; the authors note this does not rule out their relevance in dementia care.