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. 2025 Mar;46(3):1207-1215.
doi: 10.1007/s10072-024-07887-w. Epub 2024 Nov 23.

Psychometric properties and clinical correlates of the Frontal Behaviour Inventory in progressive supranuclear palsy: data from the PSP-NET

Arianna Cappiello  1 , Sofia Cuoco  1 , Rosa De Micco  2 , Sara Satolli  3 , Francesca Di Biasio  4 , Tiziana Benzi Markushi  4 , Luisa Sambati  5 , Andrea Pilotto  6   7   8 , Matteo Costanzo  9   10 , Chiara Longo  11 , Tommaso Schirinzi  12 , Eleonora Del Prete  13 , Daniela Frosini  13 , Alessandro Stefani  12 , Maria Chiara Malaguti  11 , Giovanni Fabbrini  10   14 , Alessandro Padovani  6   15   16 , Giovanna Calandra-Buonaura  5   17 , Roberta Marchese  4 , Alessandro Tessitore  2 , Paolo Barone  1 , Marina Picillo  18 ; P. S. P.-N. E. T. study group
Collaborators, Affiliations

Psychometric properties and clinical correlates of the Frontal Behaviour Inventory in progressive supranuclear palsy: data from the PSP-NET

Arianna Cappiello et al. Neurol Sci. 2025 Mar.

Abstract

Objectives: Neuropsychiatric symptoms, such as apathy, disinhibition and irritability, are common in Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP). The Frontal Behaviour Inventory (FBI) is a useful instrument for the evaluation of behavioural disorders in neurodegenerative diseases. The main goal of the present study was to explore the psychometric properties of the FBI in PSP.

Design, setting and participants: FBI was administered to the PSP-NET cohort including Italian patients diagnosed according to the Movement Disorder Society criteria. Patients underwent a clinical interview, a motor evaluation, extensive cognitive and behavioural testing.

Results: Two hundred and eight subjects were included in this study. The internal consistency was high (Cronbach's alpha = 0.868) and no improvement of this value was noted upon removal of any item. FBI showed also good acceptability, reliability and validity. The standard error of measurement (SEM) value for FBI total score was 0.169 [SEM = SD √ (1 - Cronbach's alpha)]. Factor analysis indicated a five-factor structure: Apathy, Behavioural disorders, Impulsivity, Motor and speech frontal behaviour and Executive disorders that explained the 54.92% of the total variance. Linear regression analysis showed that global cognitive impairment significantly affects both Apathy and Motor and speech frontal behaviour factors.

Conclusions: In conclusion, FBI is a reliable and valid tool for the assessment of neuropsychiatric symptoms in PSP, despite some constructs, such as euphoria and irritability, are better measured by the NPI. Two third of the cohort was represented by Richardson's syndrome, thus our data are mainly applicable to such common phenotype. Such data are useful in both clinical and research settings to plan adequate therapeutic interventions and to improve the quality of life of PSP patients and their caregivers.

Keywords: Motor symptoms; Neuropsychiatric symptoms; Progressive supranuclear palsy.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Ethical approval: The project was performed in accordance with the ethical standards laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and was approved by the central Ethics Committee (number 178 December the 4th, 2020) and, thereafter, by the ones of all participating centers. Informed consent: All patients were included upon signature of the written informed consent. Competing interests: None declared. Conflict of interest: None Disclosures: From the past two years Dr Marina Picillo is supported by the Michael J Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s research, the Italian Ministry of Health and the Fondazione della Società Italiana di Neurologia; Prof Paolo Barone received consultancies as a member of the advisory board for Zambon, Lundbeck, UCB, Chiesi, Abbvie and Acorda; the other authors report no financial diclosures.

References

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