Abstract Details

Title Conversation Deficits and Caregiver Burden in Behavioral Variant Frontotemporal Dementia (bvFTD) and Primary Progressive Aphasia (PPA)

Topic Aging and Dementia

Presentation(s) P03 - (-)

Poster/Presentation
Number 091

Objective

Background BACKGROUND: Despite our advancing knowledge of language deficits in bvFTD and PPA, few studies have explored day-to-day communication failure. We administered the Perception of Conversation Index (PCI-DAT) to evaluate the conversation deficits of bvFTD and PPA patients as perceived by their caregivers.

Design/Methods DESIGN/METHODS: The PCI-DAT was administered to caregivers of 13 bvFTD and 24 PPA patients (7 semantic, 10 non-fluent/agrammatic, 7 logopenic). The survey includes 74 items in five subscales: 1) communication deficits (e.g., difficulty finding words, understanding questions, completing sentences), 2) caregiver repair strategies 3) patient repair strategies 4) caregiver feelings and 5) disruption of social activities resulting from conversation difficulties. Items were rated using a 7-point Likert scale.

Results RESULTS: Patient groups had comparable age (bvFTD=62yrs, PPA=65yrs) and MMSE scores (bvFTD=25, PPA=24), but differed in naming difficulty (Boston Naming Test-30: bvFTD=25, PPA=17, p<.05) and behavioral disturbance (Neuropsychiatric Inventory: bvFTD=37, PPA=12; p<.05). BvFTD caregivers had significantly worse scores than PPA caregivers when rating perceived disruptions in social activities resulting from conversation difficulties (bvFTD=4.9 (moderate), PPA=2.4 (mild); p<.05). These reported caregiver challenges included new roles/burdens; anticipating wants/needs, changing family routine, restricted social activities, losing sense of freedom and losing intimacy/closeness. While communication deficits significantly predicted disruption of social activities in PPA (R2=.48, p<.05), this relationship was not present in bvFTD.

Conclusions CONCLUSIONS: Compared to PPA, caregivers of bvFTD patients reported more severe disruptions in social activities resulting from conversation difficulties. While simple communication deficits significantly predicted disruption of social activities in PPA, this relationship was not present in bvFTD. Conversational problems may be related in part to bvFTD patients' reported disorders of conversational discourse. Our findings underscore the high level of burden experienced by bvFTD caregivers and may help guide future caregiver interventions.

Authors/Disclosures
Katya Rascovsky (University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine) PRESENTER	No disclosure on file
	No disclosure on file
	No disclosure on file
Ashley Boller	No disclosure on file
Murray Grossman, MD, FAAN (University of Pennsylvania)	Dr. Grossman has received personal compensation in the range of $5,000-$9,999 for serving as an Editor, Associate Editor, or Editorial Advisory Board Member for Neurology. The institution of Dr. Grossman has received research support from NIH.

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