On 25 May, Dr. Beatriz Lara and colleagues published a Short Communication in the European Journal of Neurology, reporting on the neuropsychiatric symptoms and quality of life in Spanish people with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) or mild Alzheimer’s disease (AD) during the COVID-19 lockdown.
On March 14, the Spanish Government implemented lockdown measures that confined people to their homes, restricting public activities and closing day care centres for people with cognitive impairment. The researchers aimed to evaluate the effect of these confinement measures on people with mild AD or MCI, administering neuropsychiatric tests and questionnaires to assess their neuropsychiatric symptoms and quality of life compared to the period prior to lockown. In total, 20 people with mild AD and 20 people with MCI were recruited to the small-scale study from the Cognitive Disorders Unit at the Hospital Universitari Santa Maria in Llieda, Spain. Participants had previously been evaluated at the clinic, providing baseline measures.
Statistical analyses showed a significant increase in several neuropsychiatric symptoms, including apathy and anxiety in participants with MCI, and apathy, agitation and aberrant motor symptoms in people with dementia. No differences in quality of life measures (EuroQol-5D) were observed, although approximately 30% of participants and 40% of caregivers reported a worsening of their health status during confinement.
Link to article: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ene.14339