TY - JOUR
T1 - The Neuropsychiatric Inventory-Clinician rating scale (NPI-C)
T2 - Reliability and validity of a revised assessment of neuropsychiatric symptoms in dementia
AU - De Medeiros, K.
AU - Robert, P.
AU - Gauthier, S.
AU - Stella, F.
AU - Politis, A.
AU - Leoutsakos, J.
AU - Taragano, F.
AU - Kremer, J.
AU - Brugnolo, A.
AU - Porsteinsson, A. P.
AU - Geda, Y. E.
AU - Brodaty, H.
AU - Gazdag, G.
AU - Cummings, J.
AU - Lyketsos, C.
PY - 2010/9
Y1 - 2010/9
N2 - Background: Neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS) affect almost all patients with dementia and are a major focus of study and treatment. Accurate assessment of NPS through valid, sensitive and reliable measures is crucial. Although current NPS measures have many strengths, they also have some limitations (e.g. acquisition of data is limited to informants or caregivers as respondents, limited depth of items specific to moderate dementia). Therefore, we developed a revised version of the NPI, known as the NPI-C. The NPI-C includes expanded domains and items, and a clinician-rating methodology. This study evaluated the reliability and convergent validity of the NPI-C at ten international sites (seven languages). Methods: Face validity for 78 new items was obtained through a Delphi panel. A total of 128 dyads (caregivers/patients) from three severity categories of dementia (mild = 58, moderate = 49, severe = 21) were interviewed separately by two trained raters using two rating methods: the original NPI interview and a clinician-rated method. Rater 1 also administered four additional, established measures: the Apathy Evaluation Scale, the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale, the Cohen-Mansfield Agitation Index, and the Cornell Scale for Depression in Dementia. Intraclass correlations were used to determine inter-rater reliability. Pearson correlations between the four relevant NPI-C domains and their corresponding outside measures were used for convergent validity. Results: Inter-rater reliability was strong for most items. Convergent validity was moderate (apathy and agitation) to strong (hallucinations and delusions; agitation and aberrant vocalization; and depression) for clinician ratings in NPI-C domains. Conclusion: Overall, the NPI-C shows promise as a versatile tool which can accurately measure NPS and which uses a uniform scale system to facilitate data comparisons across studies.
AB - Background: Neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS) affect almost all patients with dementia and are a major focus of study and treatment. Accurate assessment of NPS through valid, sensitive and reliable measures is crucial. Although current NPS measures have many strengths, they also have some limitations (e.g. acquisition of data is limited to informants or caregivers as respondents, limited depth of items specific to moderate dementia). Therefore, we developed a revised version of the NPI, known as the NPI-C. The NPI-C includes expanded domains and items, and a clinician-rating methodology. This study evaluated the reliability and convergent validity of the NPI-C at ten international sites (seven languages). Methods: Face validity for 78 new items was obtained through a Delphi panel. A total of 128 dyads (caregivers/patients) from three severity categories of dementia (mild = 58, moderate = 49, severe = 21) were interviewed separately by two trained raters using two rating methods: the original NPI interview and a clinician-rated method. Rater 1 also administered four additional, established measures: the Apathy Evaluation Scale, the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale, the Cohen-Mansfield Agitation Index, and the Cornell Scale for Depression in Dementia. Intraclass correlations were used to determine inter-rater reliability. Pearson correlations between the four relevant NPI-C domains and their corresponding outside measures were used for convergent validity. Results: Inter-rater reliability was strong for most items. Convergent validity was moderate (apathy and agitation) to strong (hallucinations and delusions; agitation and aberrant vocalization; and depression) for clinician ratings in NPI-C domains. Conclusion: Overall, the NPI-C shows promise as a versatile tool which can accurately measure NPS and which uses a uniform scale system to facilitate data comparisons across studies.
KW - Alzheimer's disease
KW - agitation
KW - apathy
KW - dementia
KW - depression
KW - neuropsychiatric inventory
KW - neuropsychiatric symptoms
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=77957319896&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=77957319896&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1017/S1041610210000876
DO - 10.1017/S1041610210000876
M3 - Article
C2 - 20594384
AN - SCOPUS:77957319896
SN - 1041-6102
VL - 22
SP - 984
EP - 994
JO - International psychogeriatrics
JF - International psychogeriatrics
IS - 6
ER -