The utility of the Cambridge Behavioural Inventory in neurodegenerative disease

• Published in: Journal of neurology, neurosurgery and psychiatry Vol. 79; no. 5; pp. 500 - 503
• Main Authors: Wedderburn, C, Wear, H, Brown, J, Mason, S J, Barker, R A, Hodges, J, Williams-Gray, C
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London BMJ Publishing Group Ltd 01.05.2008; BMJ; BMJ Publishing Group LTD
• Subjects: Activities of Daily Living - classification; Activities of Daily Living - psychology; Adult; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Alzheimer Disease - diagnosis; Alzheimer's disease; Analysis of Variance; Behavior; Biological and medical sciences; Caregivers; Caregivers - psychology; Cohort Studies; Degenerative and inherited degenerative diseases of the nervous system. Leukodystrophies. Prion diseases; Dementia; Dementia - diagnosis; Dementia - psychology; Diagnosis, Differential; Disability Evaluation; Disease Progression; Female; Gender; Humans; Huntington Disease - diagnosis; Huntington Disease - psychology; Huntingtons disease; Inventory; Male; Medical sciences; Memory; Mental Disorders - diagnosis; Mental Disorders - psychology; Mental Status Schedule - statistics & numerical data; Middle Aged; Mortality; Neurology; Parkinson Disease - diagnosis; Parkinson Disease - psychology; Parkinson's disease; Psychometrics - statistics & numerical data; Quality of Life - psychology; Reproducibility of Results; Sensitivity and Specificity; Sleep; Studies; Surveys and Questionnaires; Nervous system diseases; Inventory
• ISSN: 0022-3050; 1468-330X
• DOI: 10.1136/jnnp.2007.122028

We investigated the utility of the Cambridge Behavioural Inventory (CBI), a carer-completed questionnaire, in a large cohort with Parkinson’s disease (PD) (n = 215). In a sub-cohort of 112 patients with PD, the CBI was found to be a valid instrument compared with the Neuropsychiatric Inventory, PDQ-39 and UPDRS, with high internal consistency. Furthermore, in the whole cohort, the CBI was sensitive to changes in behaviour with disease progression. Comparison between CBI scores in PD and other neurodegenerative diseases, including Huntington’s disease (HD) (n = 75), Alzheimer’s disease (AD) (n = 96) and frontal variant frontotemporal dementia (fvFTD) (n = 64), revealed distinct profiles for each disease. Predominant deficits were “sleep”’ and “self care” in PD; “memory” in HD and AD; and “motivation” and “stereotypic behaviours” in fvFTD. The CBI is a robust, easy-to-use and valid instrument, which has the capacity to discriminate between neurodegenerative diseases, and may be of value in monitoring therapeutic interventions.