Depressive, functional status, and neuropsychiatric symptom trajectories before an Alzheimer's disease diagnosis

Objectives: This short report relied on multiyear data from the National Alzheimer's Coordinating Center – Uniform Data Set (NACC-UDS) to examine whether significant changes occurred in functional status, neuropsychiatric symptoms, and depressive symptoms in the years before receiving an Alzheimer's disease (AD) diagnosis.Method: The secondary analysis used a retrospective cohort design. The NACC-UDS is a publicly accessible, longitudinal database that includes standardized data on neuropsychiatric symptoms, functional status, and depressive symptoms for Alzheimer's Disease Center (ADC) participants in the USA based on their annual visits from 2005 to 2011. ADC participants were considered diagnosed with AD if a follow-up data form indicated an affirmative response to whether the ADC participant had ‘probable AD (National Institute of Neurological and Communicative Disorders and Stroke (NINCDS)/Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders Association (ADRDA))’ or ‘possible AD (NINCDS/ADRDA).’ This yielded an...