Comparison of Cognitive Symptoms in Subtypes of Alzheimer’s disease (AD)-a study from South East Asia (Kashmir, India)

Background: The heralding of baby boomers and a subsequent surge in elderly population, has led to immense research in unravelling the mysteries in the geriatric age group with Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder with varied cognitive dysfunctions. However no comprehensive study has been carried out in South East Asia(Kashmir, India) to investigate cognitive symptoms in subtypes of AD. Objectives: To assess cognitive symptoms in subtypes of AD in Kashmiri (Indian) population. Material and Methods: The study was conducted in Memory Clinic of Postgraduate Department of Psychiatry, Government medical college, Kashmir (India) from January 2012 to March 2014. The diagnosis of AD patients was done according to NINCDS-ADRDA criteria .A total of 80 patients of AD were screened (40 with age of onset less than 65 and 40 with age of onset greater than 64) .Patients with age of onset less than 65 were called as Early Onset Alzheimer’s disease (EAD) and patients with age onset greater than 65 were called as Late onset Alzheimer’s disease (LOAD). MMSE(Mini Mental State Examination),CDR (Clinical Dementia Rating) and various other neuropsychological tests like verbal digit span, verbal fluency, the 15-item MiniBoston Naming Test(Mini BNT),10item Auditory Verbal Learning Test, Constructions, calculations, and similarities from the Neurobehavioral Cognitive Status Examination were assessed in all the patients . The data was analysed using paired t test. Results: The mean age of EAD and LOAD was 63.10 and 84.28 respectively. There was significant difference in MMSE of both of the groups and was found to be statistically significant (P<0.05).Patients in the EAD group performed better than the LOAD group on all the tests of motor-execution (P<0.05) .LOAD group had lower mean score of verbal fluency compared to EAD group. Conclusion: Wider dysfunctions in cognitive symptoms were present in LOAD compared to EAD.