Aim: To compare the profile of behavioural features in patients with motor neurone disease (MND) vs. patients with behavioural variant Frontotemporal Dementia (bvFTD).
Participants and Methods: 81 carers of MND patients and 25 carers of bvFTD patients (NSW) completed the revised version of the Cambridge Behavioural Inventory (CBI-R). This scale is a 45-item carer based questionnaire, investigating cognitive abilities, everyday functional ability and neuropsychiatric symptoms in dementia.
Results: according to carer reports, 60 % of MND patients had abnormal eating habits, abnormal behaviour and stereotypical and motor behaviour. Notably, reduced motivation was reported in 84% of the MND cases, with almost 60% of them having moderate-severe problems. The absence of abnormal beliefs was striking, being present in only 5 % of the cases. The proportion of patients presenting behavioural problems was significant higher in the bvFTD group than MND in the following domains: memory & orientation, eating habits, abnormal behaviour, stereotypic & motor behaviour, motivation, and beliefs (p < 0.001). Conversely, and probably due to the motor involvement, self care (p < 0.013) and sleep (p > 0.05) were more affected in MND patients.
Conclusions: As expected, the proportion of patients with moderate-severe endorsement on the CBI-R was higher in the bvFTD group. However, the proportion of MND patients with behavioural changes reached more than 50% and presented a very distinctive pattern, being reduced motivation the most prominent feature.