Ain Shams University Behavioral Assessment tool (ASUB): A New Tool for Assessment of Behavioral and Psychological Symptoms in Elderly Demented Patients

Abstract

Background: Neuropsychiatric symptoms (psychotic, behavioral and mood) are very common in dementia
patients. They are major source of excess disability, patient distress and caregiver burden, thus appropriate
assessment and quantification of these symptoms in elderly demented patients is mandated.
Aim of the Work:To assess the reliability of Ain shams university behavioral assessment tool in the
diagnosis of neuropsychiatric symptoms in dementia compared to Behavior Rating Scale for Dementia of
the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's disease CERAD-BRSD.
Methods: An observational cross sectional study was conducted on 70 elderly demented patients aged 60
years and above and their primary caregivers. All patients underwent a comprehensive geriatric assessment.
Results:The recruited sample included 15 cases with mild dementia, 42 with moderate dementia and 13
with severe dementia.17.1%of the cases had stroke, 8.5 % had Parkinsonism, 28.6% had Hypertension
and18.6% had ischemic heart disease.92.9%of the studied persons were negative for depression asassessed
by Cornell scale. 48.6% of the cases were assisted in ADL and 45.7 were dependent. Regarding IADL,
75.7% of the cases were dependent and 18.6 % were assisted.The most prevalent neuropsychiatric
symptoms in our study were agitation, anxiety and mood disturbance. They were more common in
moderate dementia. Delusions and hallucination were more prevalent among mild and moderate dementia.
The internal consistency for ASUB was 0.813 and for CERAD-BRSD was 0.865.
Conclusions: ASUB is a new Arabic tool that is reliable for the assessment of neuropsychiatric symptoms
of dementia.