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. 2023;95(3):1091-1106.
doi: 10.3233/JAD-220941.

Psychological Status of the Participants in Alzheimer's Prevention Initiative Autosomal Dominant Alzheimer's Disease Colombia

Claudia Ramos  1   2 , Claudia Madrigal  1 , Daniel Camilo Aguirre-Acevedo  1   2 , Margarita Giraldo-Chica  1 , Natalia Acosta-Baena  1 , Claudia Aponte  1 , David Aguillón  1   2 , Manuela Gómez  1 , Alejandro Espinosa  1 , Lucia Madrigal  1 , Claramonika Uribe  1 , Amanda Saldarriaga  1 , Diana Alzate  1 , Alejandra Ruiz  1 , Angela Andrade  1 , Hugo Lopez  1 , Jessica B Langbaum  3 , Kaycee M Sink  4 , Eric M Reiman  3 , Pierre N Tariot  3 , Silvia Ríos-Romenets  1 , Francisco Lopera  1   2
Affiliations

Psychological Status of the Participants in Alzheimer's Prevention Initiative Autosomal Dominant Alzheimer's Disease Colombia

Claudia Ramos et al. J Alzheimers Dis. 2023.

Abstract

Background: The SARS-CoV2 global pandemic impacted participants in the Alzheimer's Prevention Initiative (API) Autosomal Dominant Alzheimer's Disease (ADAD) clinical trial, who faced three stressors: 1) fear of developing dementia; 2) concerns about missing treatment; and 3) risk of SARS-CoV2 infection.

Objective: To describe the frequency of psychological disorders among the participants of the API ADAD Colombia clinical study, treated by a holistic mental health team during the COVID-19 pandemic. The extent of use of mental health team services was explored considering different risk factors, and users and non-users of these services were compared.

Methods: Participants had free and optional access to psychology and psychiatry services, outside of the study protocol. Descriptive statistics was used to analyze the frequency of the mental health difficulties. A multivariable logistic regression model has been used to assess associations with using this program.

Results: 66 participants were treated by the Mental Health Team from March 1, 2020, to December 31, 2020. Before and after the start of the pandemic, the most common psychological problems were anxiety (36.4% before, 63.6% after) and depression (34.8% before, 37.9% after). 70% of users assisted by psychology and 81.6% of those assisted by psychiatry felt that the services were useful for them. Female sex, depression, and anxiety before the pandemic were positively associated with being assisted by either psychology or psychiatry, while the association with hyperlipidemia was negative.

Conclusions: A holistic mental health program, carried out in the context of a study, could mitigate psychopathology during pandemics such as COVID-19.

Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease; COVID-19; health services and institutions.

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Conflict of interest statement

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

Claudia Ramos is an Editorial Board Member of this journal but was not involved in the peer-review process nor had access to any information regarding its peer-review. Silvia Rios-Romenets was supported by Genentech/Roche. Francisco Lopera has grants supported by Roche, Banner, NIH, Enroll-HD, Large PD and DIAN. The rest of the authors from GNA have no financial interest of affiliations relevant to the subject to this manuscript. Jessica B. Langbaum reports grants from NIA (RF1AG041705, P30AG072980, R01AG05544, 1R33AG070604, 1R01AG069453, 1R01AG063954, 1R01AG058468) and received consulting fees from Alector, Biogen, Denovo Biopharma, and Provoc. Pierre Tariot reports receiving research support and consultant fees from Abbvie, AC Immune, Acadia, Athira, Biogen, BioXcel, Cortexyme, Eisai, Genentech, Merck, Novo Nordisk, Otsuka & Astex, Syneos and T3D Therapeutics. Kaycee M. Sink and Eric Reiman do not have any direct conflicts/disclosures to report.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Individual care of the patient with complaints or difficulties in their mental health: care flowchart
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Telephone psychological first aid Adapted from “Remote Psychological First Aid during COVID-19”, with permission [20].
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Percentage of participants with depression, anxiety, and other disorders, who considered psychological or psychiatric care to be useful
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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