Responsiveness of the quality of life in late-stage dementia scale to psychotropic drug treatment in late-stage dementia

Background: We report on the responsiveness of a previously validated quality-of-life scale, the Quality of Life in Late-Stage Dementia scale (QUALID), as an outcome measure in a clinical trial of two psychotropic medications. Methods: Secondary analyses were conducted comparing outcome measures used in a randomized double-blind trial of two antipsychotics (olanzapine and risperidone) for the treatment of dementia-related behavioral symptoms. The QUALID was completed for 31 of the patients in addition to several measures of behavior-related dementia symptoms including the Neuropsychiatric Inventory, the Withdrawn Behavior subscale of the Multidimensional Observation Scale for Elderly Subjects, the Mini-Mental State Examination, and the Clinical Global Impression. Measures of safety and adverse effects included the Simpson-Angus Scale and records of specific adverse events. Results: A significant positive relationship was found between QUALID score and improvement in behavioral symptoms, and a negative association was found with adverse medication effects. Conclusions: The QUALID was sensitive to both the treatment effects and the adverse effects of medication in this sample of patients.