Bipolar disorder progression to dementia with frontal features. A scoping review protocol

Abstract

Background: A subset of patients with bipolar disorder (BD) develop a midlife cognitive/behavioral decline that overlaps with the clinical features of behavioral variant Frontotemporal Dementia (bvFTD). Several case reports and case series have described different clinical features and outcomes of a frontal cognitive/behavioral decline in patients with history of BD. Given that this presentation is scarcely reported, a first step to better characterize this specific condition is to perform an evidence synthesis report. Objective: This scoping review protocol aims to describe and characterize the different patterns of frontal cognitive/behavioral decline in patients with history of BD. Information sources: Studies will be retrieved from MEDLINE (PubMed), PsychINFO, EMBASE and Google Scholar, no other sources will be considered. Inclusion criteria: Studies describing patients with an established diagnosis of BD preceding a later development of dementia with frontal cognitive/behavioral decline. Exclusion criteria: Studies written in languages different than Spanish or English or French that could not be appropriately translated, or whose full text files could not be retrieved, and studies describing manic or BD symptoms, but not an antecedent history consistent with bipolar disorder, as a clear prodrome of bvFTD diagnosis. Data will be extracted by two researchers and verified by agreement. This protocol complies with the PRISMA-P, PRISMA ScR and JBI manual for evidence synthesis scoping review guidelines.