Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-11T01:41:19.076Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Is there a familial overlap between dementia and other psychiatric disorders?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 December 2010

Janardhanan C. Narayanaswamy*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Geriatric Clinic and Services, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore, India
Mathew Varghese
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Geriatric Clinic and Services, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore, India
Sanjeev Jain
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Geriatric Clinic and Services, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore, India
Palani Thangaraju Sivakumar
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Geriatric Clinic and Services, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore, India
Om Prakash
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Geriatric Clinic and Services, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore, India
Srikala Bharath
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Geriatric Clinic and Services, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore, India
Thennarasu Kandavel
Affiliation:
Department of Biostatistics, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore, India
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: Dr J. C. Narayanaswamy, Senior Resident, Department of Psychiatry, National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (Deemed University), Bangalore-560029, India. Phone: +91-9243095567; Fax: +91-80-26564822. Email: jairamnimhans@gmail.com.

Abstract

Background: Cognitive and psychiatric features are important components of dementia. Early onset dementia (EOD) has been found to be associated with a greater genetic basis. If this is the case, EOD could have genetic association with psychiatric illnesses, given the presence of more behavioral disturbances in this condition. There is a definite need to explore the presence of psychiatric symptoms and disorders in families of patients with dementia.

Methods: The authors compared 52 proband families of dementia and 45 control families in order to assess the familial co-aggregation of major psychiatric illnesses. The cumulative risk in first degree relatives in the two groups for major psychiatric illnesses was calculated using Kaplan Meier Survival analysis. Early onset and late onset dementia proband families were compared separately with control families for the same.

Results: There was a significantly higher morbid risk for psychosis in dementia proband families (generalized Wilcoxon, Breslow −4.165, p = 0.041). Also, the morbid risk was higher in early onset dementia proband families (generalized Wilcoxon, Breslow −6.16, p = 0.013) while it was not so in late onset dementia proband families (generalized Wilcoxon, Breslow −2.99, p = 0.084)

Conclusion: There is a possible genetic overlap between dementia and psychosis. This appears to be more pronounced with early onset dementia than with late onset dementia.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © International Psychogeriatric Association 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bird, T. D. et al. (1997). Chromosome 17 and hereditary dementia: linkage studies in three non-Alzheimer families and kindreds with late-onset FAD. Neurology, 48, 950955.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Breslow, N. (1970). A generalized Kruskal-Wallis test for comparing K samples subject to unequal patterns of censorship. Biometrika, 57, 579594.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Byerley, W., Hoff, M. and Holik, J. (1995). Linkage analysis between schizophrenia and index simple-sequence loci for chromosome 21. Human Heredity, 45, 4952.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cummings, J. L. and Benson, D. F. (1992). Dementia: A Clinical Approach. Boston, MA: Butterworths.Google Scholar
Devi, G. et al. (2004). A comparison of family history of psychiatric disorders among patients with early- and late-onset Alzheimer's disease. Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, 16, 5762.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fahim, S. et al. (1998). A study of familial aggregation of depression, dementia and Parkinson's disease. European Journal of Epidemiology, 14, 233238.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fillenbaum, G. G. et al. (1999). Development of an activities of daily living scale to screen for dementia in an illiterate rural older population in India. Age and Ageing, 28, 161168.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Friedrich, U., Mors, O. and Ewald, H. (1996). Systematic chromosome examination of two families with schizophrenia and two families with manic depressive illness. American Journal of Genetics, 67, 5862.3.0.CO;2-O>CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ganguli, M. (1995). A Hindi version of MMSE: the development of a cognitive screening instrument for a largely illiterate rural elderly population in India. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 10, 367377.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaplan, E. L. and Meier, P. (1958). Non parametric estimation from incomplete observations. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 53, 457481.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lawlor, B. A., Sunderland, T., Mellow, A. M., Hill, J. L., Newhouse, P. A. and Murphy, D. L. (1989). Family history of depression and alcoholism in Alzheimer patients and age-matched controls. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 4, 327331.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Li, G., Shen, Y. C., Li, Y. T., Chen, C. H., Zhau, Y. W. and Silverman, J. M. (1992). A case-control study of Alzheimer's disease in China. Neurology, 42, 14811488.Google ScholarPubMed
Mangone, C. A., Castano, E. M. and Levy, E. (1995). Early onset Alzheimer's disease in a South American pedigree from Argentina. Acta Neurologica Scandinavica, 91, 613.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martin, R. L., Gerteis, , Gabrielli, G., ., W. F. Jr (1988). A family-genetic study of dementia of Alzheimer type. Archives of General Psychiatry, 45, 894900.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Maxwell, E. (1992). The Family Interview for Genetic Studies Manual. Washington, DC: National Institute of Mental Health, Intramural Research Program, Clinical Neurogenetics Branch.Google Scholar
Morris, J. C. (1997). Clinical Dementia Rating: a reliable and valid diagnostic and staging measure for dementia of the Alzheimer type. International Psychogeriatrics, 9, 173176.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pearlson, G. D., Ross, C. A., Lohr, W. D., Rovner, B. W., Chase, G. A. and Folstein, M. F. (1990). Association between family history of affective disorder and the depressive syndrome of Alzheimer's disease. American Journal of Psychiatry, 147, 452456.Google ScholarPubMed
Prakash, O., Gupta, L. N., Singh, V. B., Singhal, A. K. and Verma, K. K. (2007). Profile of psychiatric disorders and life events in medically ill elderly: experiences from a geriatric clinic in Northern India. International Journal Geriatric Psychiatry, 22, 11011105.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Prakash, O., Naveen, K. C., Shivakumar, P. T., Bharath, S. and Varghese, M. (2009a). Clinical presentation of mania compared with depression: data from a geriatric clinic in India. International Psychogeriatrics, 21, 764767.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Prakash, O., Gupta, L. N., Singh, V. B. and Nagrajarao, N. (2009b). Applicability of 15-item Geriatric Depression Scale to detect depression in elderly medical outpatients. Asian Journal of Psychiatry, 2, 6365.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Prince, M. et al. (2007). The protocols for the 10/66 dementia research group population-based research programme. BMC Public Health, 20, 165.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rubin, E. H., Kinscherf, D. A. and Morris, J. C. (1993). Psychopathology in younger versus older persons with very mild and mild dementia of the Alzheimer type. American Journal of Psychiatry, 150, 639642.Google ScholarPubMed
Sheehan, C. (1998).The Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI): the development and validation of a structured diagnostic interview for DSM-IV and ICD-10. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 59 (Suppl. 20), 2257.Google ScholarPubMed
Strauss, M. E. and Ogrocki, P. K. (1996). Confirmation of an association between family history of affective disorder and the depressive syndrome in Alzheimer's disease. American Journal of Psychiatry, 153, 13401342.Google ScholarPubMed
Sweet, R. A., Nimgaonkar, V. L., Devlin, B., Lopez, O. L. and DeKosky, S. T. (2002). Increased familial risk of the psychotic phenotype of Alzheimer disease. Neurology, 58, 907911.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sweet, R. A., Nimgaonkar, V. L., Devlin, B. and Jeste, D. V. (2003). Psychotic symptoms in Alzheimer disease: evidence for a distinct phenotype. Molecular Psychiatry, 8, 383392.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tanzi, R. E. (1999). A genetic dichotomy model for the inheritance of Alzheimer's disease and common age-related disorders. Journal of Clinical Investment, 104, 11751179.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
van Ojen, R., Hooijer, C., Bezember, D., Jonker, C., Lindeboom, J. and van Tilburg, W. (1995). Latelife depressive disorder in the community II: the relationship between psychiatric history, MMSE and family history. British Journal of Psychiatry, 166, 316319.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Williams, J. et al. (1998). A meta-analysis and transmission disequilibrium study of association between the dopamine D3 receptor gene and schizophrenia. Molecular Psychiatry, 3, 141149.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed