Previous works highlight the importance of neurocognitive symptoms over cognitive and functional dependency in neurocognitive disorders. However, little is known regarding to what extent presence of neuropsychiatric symptoms predicts disease progression, cognitive and functional impairments in behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) and in Alzheimer dementia.

We performed two different evaluations (T1 and T2) with 3 years of difference in a group of bvFTD (n = 18), AD (n = 20) and controls (n = 22). Neuropsychological, clinical and cognitive correlates were measured in each time T1 and T2. By using different multiple regression models, we explored if behavioral symptoms (measured by Columbia, Yesavage at T1) predict disease progression as measured by changes over T1 and T2 in cognitive (MoCA, IFS, and clock figure) and functional dependency (Lawton).

Behavioral symptoms, in particular depression, psychosis, apathy and disihinibition were factors able to predict cognitive and functional progression in bvFTD. By contrast, regression model revealed that depression and insomnia were behavioral factors able to predict progression in AD.

Neuropsychiatric symptoms are crucial to predict disease progression in bvFTD and AD patients in differentiated ways. Our results suggest tha tracking early behavioral symptoms in neurocognitive disorders playing an important role in the early detection, disease tracking, and neuroanatomical specification of bvFTD, as well as in future research on potential disease-modifying treatments.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.