Characteristics of Patients with Dementia Attended in a Tertiary Outpatient Clinic in Eastern Region, Saudi Arabia Mostafa Amr 1* , Abdel-Hady El-Gilany 2 , Khaid Sallam 3 and Tarek Shams 4 1 Professor of psychiatry, College of Medicine, Mansoura University, Egypt 2 Professor of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Mansoura University, Egypt 3 Assistant professor of Neurology, College of Medicine, Banha University, Egypt 4 Professor of anesthesia and ICU, College of Medicine, Mansoura University, Egypt * Corresponding author: Dr Mostafaamr, Mansoura University, Mansoura, Egypt, Tel: 00201012444197; E-mail: mostafapsy@yahoo.com Received Date: January 24, 2014, Accepted Date: September 15, 2014, Published Date: September 22, 2014 Copyright: © 2014, Mostafa Amr et al., This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Abstract Background: Increasing longevity and a growing older population is associated with a higher prevalence of dementia. However; research on dementia in the Gulf region is relatively scanty compared to the western world. Objects: This is a cross sectional study to evaluate the clinical and demographic profile among 53 patients with dementia seen at the outpatient clinics of a tertiary care hospital (King Fahd Hospital), in Saudi Arabia between June 2007 and May 2011. Method: Evaluation of patients consisted of medical history, cognitive testing, assessment of functional status (Activities of Daily Living Scale - ADL; Instrumental Activities Daily Living - IADL) and application of the Neuropsychiatry Inventory (NPI) for behavioral symptoms. Severity of dementia was evaluated based on the Clinical Dementia Rating Scale (CDR). Results: Of the whole sample, 73.6% were males. Age was 71 ± 5.8 years (mean ± SD). The types of dementia were: Alzheimer's disease (56.6%), vascular dementia (24.5%), mixed cases of Alzheimer and vascular dementia (18.9%). At least one neuropsychiatric symptom was diagnosed in 98.1% of the sample. There were significant differences on some NPI symptoms such as delusions, hallucinations, apathy and aberrant motor activity. Conclusions: Dementia is expected to be a growing problem in Saudi Arabia and the overall prevalence of neuropsychiatric symptoms has been found to be high. These findings suggest that a screening program focused on identifying symptoms of early cognitive impairment and neuropsychiatric symptoms should be included amongst the tools employed by physicians for diagnosing dementia. Keywords: Dementia; Alzheimers disease; Vascular dementia; Mixed dementia; Neuropsychiatric symptoms; Saudi Arabia Introduction The phenomenon of population aging (defined as an increase in the median age of the population) [1] is already a major social and health problem in developing countries. By the year 2025, the world will host 1.2 billion people aged 60 and over, rising to 1.9 billion in 2050 [2]. The same trend is predicted in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR) including Saudi Arabia; while the proportion of the elderly population to total population was 4.8 % in 2000 it expected to reach 7.9 % by year 2025 and 12.9 % by 2050 [3]. The increase in the aged population has been attributed to a decline in fertility and a twenty years increase in the average life span during the second half of the 20th century, [4] as a result of the rapid socio- economic growth and increased provision of health and other social services. Among the major consequences of this growth is an increase in the prevalence of dementia, particularly Alzheimers disease [5]. In the United States, approximately 10% of the population older than 65 years of age suffers from dementia, with Alzheimer Disease accounting for about 2/3 of the cases [6]. In European countries, the prevalence of dementia is 6.4% and it increases with increasing age [7]. Dementia is characterized by cognitive, functional and behavioral symptoms. However, the current diagnosis of dementia focuses principally on, with neuropsychiatric symptoms considered to be secondary, descriptive symptoms [8]. Several studies have examined the prevalence of these symptoms. Depending on the population type studied and the methods used, prevalence can range from 61 to 97% [8,9]. Neuropsychiatric symptoms can induce a marked disability in patients with dementia and increase caregiver stress[10]. Furthermore, they have been found to increase rates of institutionalization and overall financial cost [11]. In the Gulf region, there is a paucity of epidemiological data on dementia in general, and Alzheimers in particular [12-16]. Moreover, the study of dementia in our region has focused on the impairment of memory and other cognitive functions. To our knowledge, there has been no population-based estimate of the prevalence of neuropsychiatric symptoms in Saudi Arabia. The present work is a hospital based study conducted between June 2007 and May 2011 aimed at investigation of the socio-demographic Journal of Psychiatry Amr et al., J Psychiatry 2014, 17:6 http://dx.doi.org/10.4172/1994-8220.1000143 Research Article Open Access J Psychiatry ISSN:1994-8220 Journal of Psychiatry, an open access Volume 17 • Issue 6 • Psychiatry-13-13