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. 2016 Aug:79:4-7.
doi: 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2016.04.004. Epub 2016 Apr 16.

Principal components analysis of agitation outcomes in Alzheimer's disease

Jerome A Yesavage  1 , Joy L Taylor  2 , Leah Friedman  3 , Paul B Rosenberg  4 , Laura C Lazzeroni  3 , Jeannie-Marie S Leoutsakos  4 , Lisa M Kinoshita  5 , Mark J Perlow  5 , Cynthia A Munro  4 , D P Devanand  6 , Lea T Drye  7 , Jacobo E Mintzer  8 , Bruce G Pollock  9 , Anton P Porsteinsson  10 , Lon S Schneider  11 , David M Shade  7 , Daniel Weintraub  12 , Constantine G Lyketsos  4 , Art Noda  3 ; CitAD Research Group
Affiliations

Principal components analysis of agitation outcomes in Alzheimer's disease

Jerome A Yesavage et al. J Psychiatr Res. 2016 Aug.

Abstract

Background: We developed a composite measure of agitation as a secondary outcome of change over time in the Citalopram for Agitation in Alzheimer's disease study (CitAD). CitAD demonstrated a positive effect of citalopram on agitation on the Neurobehavioral Rating Scale agitation subscale (NBRS-A). CitAD included additional agitation measures such as the Cohen-Mansfield Agitation Inventory and the Neuropsychiatric Inventory.

Methods: We performed principal components analyses on change in individual item of these scales for the same, original CitAD subjects.

Results: The first principal component accounted for 12.6% of the observed variance and was composed of items that appear to reflect agitation. The effect size for citalopram calculated using this component was 0.53 (95% CI 0.22-0.83) versus 0.32 for the NBRS-A (95% CI 0.01-0.62).

Conclusions: Results suggest that a composite measure of change in agitation might be more sensitive than change in a single primary agitation measure.

Keywords: Agitation; Alzheimer's disease; Principal component analysis.

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Figures

Yesavage Figure 1
Yesavage Figure 1
Scatterplot of NBRS-A change vs PC-1 change (Pearson r=0.76, p<.0001) Plot demonstrating significant relationship between CitAD primary outcome measure (NBRS-A) and the calculated PC-1 scores.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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