Dataset Information

Proinflammatory cytokines, sickness behavior, and Alzheimer disease.

ABSTRACT:

Background

In Alzheimer disease (AD), systemic inflammation is known to give rise to a delirium. However, systemic inflammation also gives rise to other centrally mediated symptoms in the absence of a delirium, a concept known as sickness behavior. Systemic inflammation is characterized by the systemic production of the proinflammatory cytokines tumor necrosis factor-? (TNF?) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) that mediate immune to brain communication and the development of sickness behavior.

Objective

To determine if raised serum TNF? or IL-6 are associated with the presence of sickness behavior symptoms, independent of the development of delirium, in a prospective cohort study of subjects with AD.

Methods

A total of 300 subjects with mild to severe AD were cognitively assessed at baseline and a blood sample taken for inflammatory markers. Cognitive assessments, including assessments to detect the development of a delirium, and blood samples were repeated at 2, 4, and 6 months. The development of neuropsychiatric symptoms in the subject with AD over the 6-month follow-up period was assessed independently by carer interview at 2, 4, and 6 months.

Results

Raised serum TNF? and IL-6, but not CRP, were associated with an approximately 2-fold increased frequency of neuropsychiatric symptoms characteristic of sickness behavior. These relationships are independent of the development of delirium.

Conclusions

Increased serum proinflammatory cytokines are associated with the presence of symptoms characteristic of sickness behavior, which are common neuropsychiatric features found in AD. This association was independent of the presence of delirium.

SUBMITTER: Holmes C

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3136056 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Proinflammatory cytokines, sickness behavior, and Alzheimer disease.

Holmes C C Cunningham C C Zotova E E Culliford D D Perry V H VH

Neurology 20110713 3

<h4>Background</h4>In Alzheimer disease (AD), systemic inflammation is known to give rise to a delirium. However, systemic inflammation also gives rise to other centrally mediated symptoms in the absence of a delirium, a concept known as sickness behavior. Systemic inflammation is characterized by the systemic production of the proinflammatory cytokines tumor necrosis factor-α (TNFα) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) that mediate immune to brain communication and the development of sickness behavior.<h4> ...[more]

PMID: 21753171

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Project description:IMPORTANCE:Neurodegenerative diseases can cause dysfunction of neural structures involved in judgment, executive function, emotional processing, sexual behavior, violence, and self-awareness. Such dysfunctions can lead to antisocial and criminal behavior that appears for the first time in the adult or middle-aged individual or even later in life. OBJECTIVE:To investigate the frequency and type of criminal behavior among patients with a diagnosed dementing disorder. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS:We conducted a retrospective medical record review of 2397 patients who were seen at the University of California, San Francisco, Memory and Aging Center between 1999 and 2012, including 545 patients with Alzheimer disease (AD), 171 patients with behavioral variant of frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD), 89 patients with semantic variant of primary progressive aphasia, and 30 patients with Huntington disease. Patient notes containing specific keywords denoting criminal behavior were reviewed. Data were stratified by criminal behavior type and diagnostic groups. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES:Frequencies of criminal behavior and ?² statistics were calculated. RESULTS:Of the 2397 patients studied, 204 (8.5%) had a history of criminal behavior that emerged during their illness. Of the major diagnostic groups, 42 of 545 patients (7.7%) with AD, 64 of 171 patients (37.4%) with bvFTD, 24 of 89 patients (27.0%) with semantic variant of primary progressive aphasia, and 6 of 30 patients (20%) with Huntington disease exhibited criminal behavior. A total of 14% of patients with bvFTD were statistically significantly more likely to present with criminal behavior compared with 2% of patients with AD (P?<?.001) and 6.4% were statistically significantly more likely to exhibit violence compared with 2% of patients with AD (P?=?.003). Common manifestations of criminal behavior in the bvFTD group included theft, traffic violations, sexual advances, trespassing, and public urination in contrast with those in the AD group, who commonly committed traffic violations, often related to cognitive impairment. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE:Criminal behavior is more common in patients with bvFTD and semantic variant of primary progressive aphasia than in those with AD and is more likely to be an early manifestation of the disorder. Judicial evaluations of criminality in the demented individual might require different criteria than the classic "insanity defense" used in the American legal system; these individuals should be treated differently by the law. The appearance of new-onset criminal behavior in an adult should elicit a search for frontal and anterior temporal brain disease and for dementing disorders.

Dataset Information

Proinflammatory cytokines, sickness behavior, and Alzheimer disease.

Background

Objective

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Publications

Proinflammatory cytokines, sickness behavior, and Alzheimer disease.

Similar Datasets

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