Does the patient take liberties or touch or hug others in a way that is out of character for him or her?

Disinhibition Question 6

2016-04-13

Cummings JL, Mega M, Gray K, Rosenberg-Thompson S, Carusi DA, Gornbein J. The Neuropsychiatric Inventory: comprehensive assessment of psychopathology in dementia. Neurology 1994; 44: 2308-2314. The NPI, NPI-NH and NPI-Q, and all translations and derivations are under copyright protection with all rights reserved to Jeffrey L. Cummings. They are made available at no charge for all noncommercial research and clinical purposes. Use of the instrument for commercial purposes (clinical trials, screening for commercial projects, application by for-profit health care providers, etc) is subject to charge and use of the instrument must be negotiated with Dr. Cummings. (E-mail jcummings@mednet.ucla.edu or NPItest.net).

The question pertains to changes in the patients behavior that have appeared since the onset of the illness. Behaviors that have been present throughout the patients life and have not changed in the course of the illness are not scored even if they are abnormal (e.g., anxiety, depression). Behaviors that have been present throughout life but have changed since the illness are scored (e.g., the patient has always been apathetic but there has been a notable increase in apathy during the period of inquiry). The NPI is typically used to assess changes in the patients behavior that have appeared in a defined period of time (e.g., in the past four weeks or other defined interval). In some studies, the NPI may be used to address changes occurring in response to treatment or that have changed since the last clinic visit. The reliability and validity studies of the NPI were conducted using the 4-week time frame.

Does the patient take liberties or touch or hug others in way that is out of character for him/her?