Substance use history in behavioral-variant frontotemporal dementia versus primary progressive aphasia

ABSTRACT

As older adults are prone to cognitive disorders, the interaction of the fields of substance use and misuse and cognitive neuroscience is an emerging area of research. Substance use has been reported in some subtypes of frontotemporal dementia, such as behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia. However, characterization of substance use in other subtypes of frontotemporal dementia, such as primary progressive aphasia, is unknown. The objective of this baseline analysis was to explore whether any measures of substance use history differed significantly among behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (n = 842) and primary progressive aphasia (n = 526) in a large national dataset. The National Alzheimer's Coordinating Center's Uniform Data Set study is a national dataset that collects data on patients with various cognitive disorders and includes some questions on substance use. Each substance use variable was used as the outcome and the frontotemporal dementia subtype as the predictor. Total years smoked cigarettes, age when last smoked cigarettes, average number of packs/day smoked when participants smoked, and any recent, remote, or combined recent/remote history of alcohol abuse or drug abuse did not significantly differ between the behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia and primary progressive aphasia subtypes (all p-values > .001). A significantly greater percentage of participants smoked in the last 30 days in the behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia subtype (10.4%, n = 834) compared to the primary progressive aphasia subtype (3.3%, n = 517; p < .001). Clinical providers in both the dementia and substance use fields are encouraged to screen for and monitor substance use in all frontotemporal dementia subtypes.

KEYWORDS:

• Frontotemporal
• dementia
• cigarette smoking
• alcohol
• substance use
• drug

Acknowledgments

Dr. Kalapatapu thanks Sarah Monsell and Kate Heller at the NACC at the University of Washington for processing the data request for this analysis. Dr. Kalapatapu also thanks the NACC publication review committee for reviewing the manuscript to be submitted to this journal.

Funding

The NACC is funded by the National Institute on Aging (UO1 AG016976) and located in the Department of Epidemiology at the University of Washington School of Public Health. Dr. Kalapatapu is currently funded by K23DA034883. Dr. Delucchi is currently funded by P50DA009253. Dr. Kramer is currently funded by P50AG023501, R01AG022983, and R01AG032289.