Correlates of neuropsychiatric and motor tests with language assessment in patients with Lewy body dementia

Abstract

Background: Lewy body dementia (LBD) impairs performance in daily activities and affects motor, language and visuospatial tasks. Objective: We aimed to correlate neuropsychiatric and motor assessments with language and visual organization tests in LBD. Methods: Twenty-two patients with dementia with Lewy bodies and ten patients with Parkinson’s disease dementia participated on a cross-sectional study that assessed cognition, functionality, caregiver burden, verbal fluency, the primer-level dictation section of the Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination (PLD-BDAE), the Hooper Visual Organization Test, the Neuropsychiatric Inventory and the Movement Disorder Society – Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale. Results: Language and visuospatial test results followed motor impairment and general cognitive performance. Whereas visual organization did not predict performance in the PLD-BDAE, visuospatial abilities and verbal fluency were concurrently associated, suggesting that linguistic impairment in LBD may be attributed to neuropsychological components of cognition and language. Only visual organization was associated with behaviour, suggesting that neuropsychiatric symptoms associate with differential impairment of visual organization in comparison with language in LBD. Schooling did not affect visual organization or language test performance, while the length of dementia was negatively associated with visual organization and verbal fluency. Discussion: Though visual organization tests follow behaviour and motor performance in LBD, there is differential impairment regarding language skills.