Analysis Of The Relationship Between Sleep Disorders And Behavioral And Psychological Symptoms In Patients With Alzheimer’s Disease

Background and objectiveAlzheimer’s disease is a common degenerative disease of the central nervous system, which is the most common cause of dementia. In Alzheimer’s disease, people pay more attention to cognitive impairment, which is characterized by memory dysfunction, behavioral and psychological symptoms are often ignored. But in patients with Alzheimer’s disease, behavioral and psychological symptoms are more common. Sleep disorder is one of the most closely behavioral and psychological symptoms related to Alzheimer’s disease. Sleep disturbance in patients with Alzheimer’s disease can not only accelerate the rate of cognitive decline, but also correlate with behavioral and psychiatric symptoms in patients. At the same time, sleep disorder is the main factors of Alzheimer’s disease patients’ quality of life decline and caregiver burden. Although the current clinical treatment still cannot reverse Alzheimer’s disease course, but for Alzheimer’s disease, effective treatment can delay the progression of disease and improve the quality of life of the patients. It is an important part of the clinical management of patients with Alzheimer’s disease to improve the sleep disorder and prevent the behavioral and psychiatric symptoms. Therefore, early identification of patients with sleep disorders, clinical intervention can slow the decline in cognitive function in patients, improve behavioral and psychological symptoms of patients and reduce the burden of caregivers. In this study, we observed the incidence and severity of sleep disorders and behavioral and psychological symptoms in patients with Alzheimer’s disease and normal elderly, to discuss the characteristics of sleep disorders in patients with Alzheimer’s disease, and to analyze the correlation between sleep disorders and behavioral and psychological symptoms in patients with Alzheimer’s disease, provide objective clinical evidence for early identification and treatment of sleep disorders in patients with Alzheimer’s disease, and to better prevent the emergence of behavioral and psychological symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease patients, to delay the progression of the disease and improve the quality of life of the patients.Methods84 patients with Alzheimer disease were recruited from clinics of Qilu hospital and matched control group which patients without cognitive impairment, MMSE and CDR were used to measure the cognitive function and the degree of dementia, NPI was used to measure the behavioral and psychological symptoms and caregiver burden. ADCS-ADL was used to evaluate living activity, PSQI was used to evaluate the sleep disorders of patients. The data were analyzed with software SPSS version 17.0.Resultsthe incidence of sleep disorders in patients with Alzheimer disease is 55.9%, the most common symptoms are sleep disorder in night (64.2%), followed by reduction of sleep efficiency (58.3%) and daytime sleepiness (51.1%), the least common item is the using hypnotic drugs (10.7%) in this study. The incidence of behavior and psychological symptoms is 89.2%, and the most common behavior and psychological symptoms is apathy (64.2%), followed by sleep/night behavior disorder (48.8%) and depression (46.4%). The PSQI score is negatively related to the scores of MMSE and ADL, and is positively related to the scores of NPI; PSQI scores are positively related to the scores of apathy and depression; PQSI scores are positively to the numbers of behavioral and psychological symptoms in patients with Alzheimer disease.Conclusion1. In patients with Alzheimer’s disease, the incidence of sleep disorders is very high, the patients with Alzheimer’s disease can appear various types of sleep disorders;2.1n patients with Alzheimer’s disease, the frequency of behavioral and psychological symptoms is very high, the most common psychiatric symptoms are apathy, sleep/night behavior abnormalities, depression;3.Sleep disorders in patients with Alzheimer’s disease seriously affect the cognitive function and daily life ability of patients;4.There is a complex relationship between sleep disorders and behavioral and psychological symptoms in patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Sleep disorders in patients with Alzheimer’s disease can increase the appearance of apathy and depression.