AUTHOR=Roberto Natalia , Portella Maria J. , Marquié Marta , Alegret Montserrat , Hernández Isabel , Mauleón Ana , Rosende-Roca Maitee , Abdelnour Carla , Esteban de Antonio Ester , Tartari Juan P. , Vargas Liliana , López-Cuevas Rogelio , Bojaryn Urszula , Espinosa Ana , Ortega Gemma , Pérez-Cordón Alba , Sanabria Ángela , Orellana Adelina , de Rojas Itziar , Moreno-Grau Sonia , Montrreal Laura , Alarcón-Martín Emilio , Ruíz Agustín , Tárraga Lluís , Boada Mercè , Valero Sergi 

TITLE=Neuropsychiatric Profile as a Predictor of Cognitive Decline in Mild Cognitive Impairment

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience

VOLUME=13

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/aging-neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnagi.2021.718949

DOI=10.3389/fnagi.2021.718949

ISSN=1663-4365

ABSTRACT=<p><bold>Introduction:</bold> Mild cognitive impairment is often associated with affective and other neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS). This co-occurrence might have a relevant impact on disease progression, from MCI to dementia.</p><p><bold>Objective:</bold> The aim of this study was to explore the trajectories of cognitive decline in an MCI sample from a memory clinic, taking into consideration a perspective of isolated cognitive functions and based on NPS clusters, accounting for the different comorbid symptoms collected at their baseline visit.</p><p><bold>Methods:</bold> A total of 2,137 MCI patients were monitored over a 2.4-year period. Four clusters of NPS (i.e., Irritability, Apathy, Anxiety/Depression and Asymptomatic) were used to run linear mixed models to explore the interaction of cluster with time on cognitive trajectories using a comprehensive neuropsychological battery (NBACE) administered at baseline and at the three subsequent follow-ups.</p><p><bold>Results:</bold> A significant interaction between cluster and time in cognitive decline was found when verbal learning and cued-recall were explored (<italic>p</italic> = 0.002 for both memory functions). For verbal learning, the Irritability cluster had the largest effect size (0.69), whereas the Asymptomatic cluster showed the smallest effect size (0.22). For cued-recall, the Irritability cluster had the largest effect size among groups (0.64), and Anxiety/Depression had the smallest effect size (0.21).</p><p><bold>Conclusions:</bold> In MCI patients, the Irritability and Apathy NPS clusters shared similar patterns of worsening in memory functioning, which could point to these NPS as risk factors of a faster cognitive decline, acting as early prognostic markers and helping in the diagnostic process.</p>