Assessing Impulsivity Changes in Alzheimer Disease

Impulsive behaviors are common in brain-damaged patients including those with neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer disease (AD). The objective of this study was to develop and validate a short version of the UPPS Impulsive Behavior Scale assessing changes on 4 different dimensions of impulsivity, namely urgency, (lack of) premeditation, (lack of) perseverance, and sensation seeking, arising in the course of a neurodegenerative disease. To this end, caregivers of 83 probable AD patients completed a short questionnaire adapted from the UPPS Impulsive Behavior Scale. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses of the data were performed and revealed that a model with 4 distinct but related latent variables corresponding to 4 different dimensions of impulsivity fit the data best. Furthermore, the results showed that lack of perseverance, followed by lack of premeditation and…

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