Tatiana Dimitriou¹*, Panagiota Stathopoulou², Aggeliki Tsapanou³, Chara Tzavara⁴, Theodore P Parthymos⁵, Chrysanthi Andronoglou⁶, Vasiliki Kamtsadeli⁷, Maria Hatzopoulou⁸, Niki Tsinia⁹, Evi Lykou¹⁰, Panagiotis Zikos¹¹, Dimitra Sali¹², Sokratis G Papageorgiou¹³ and John D Papatriantafyllou¹⁴

¹Neuroscientist, PhD, Third Age Center IASIS, Athens, Greece
²Clinical Neuropsychologist, MSc, Third Age Center IASIS, Athens, Greece
³Clinical Neuropsychologist, PhD, Assistant Professor of Clinical Neuropsychology University of Athens, Greece
⁴Scientific Officer at N. K. U. Athens, Greece
⁵Clinical Neuropsychologist, PhD, Senior Lecturer in Clinical Psychology, Faculty of Life and Health Sciences, De Montfort University, Leicester, UK
⁶Clinical Neuropsychologist, MSc, Third Age Center IASIS Athens, Greece
⁷Psychologist, MSc, Third Age Center IASIS Athens, Greece
⁸Clinical Neuropsychologist, MSc, Third Age Center IASIS Athens, Greece
⁹Occupational Therapist, MSc, 1st University Psychiatric Dpt, Eginition Hospital, Athens, Greece
¹⁰Psychologist, Third Age Center IASIS Athens, Greece
¹¹MD, Neurology Clinic, 251 Airforce Hospital, Athens, Greece
¹²MD, PhD, Medical Center of Athens, Memory Clinic, Athens, Greece
¹³MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Neurology and Neuropsychology, Medical School, University of Athens, 1st University Department of Neurology, “Eginition" University Hospital, Greece
¹⁴MD, PhD, Third Age Center IASIS, Athens, Medical Center of Athens, Memory Clinic, Athens, 1st University Neurology Dpt, Eginition Hospital, Athens, Greece

*Corresponding Author: Tatiana Dimitriou, Neuroscientist, PhD, Third Age Center IASIS Athens, Greece.

Received: June 22, 2026; Published: August 06, 2026

Abstract

Background: The Frontal Systems Behaviour Scale (FrSBe) is a widely used tool for the assessment of behavioural problems in neurodegenerative disorders with frontal- system dysfunctions, including apathy, disinhibtionsinhibition and executive problems. Nevertheless, evidence of the scale for the Greek clinical population remains limited. The current study aimed to investigate the known-groups validity of the FrSBe by examining its ability to differentiate among patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD), behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD), semantic variant frontotemporal dementia (svFTD), and healthy groups. Another aim was to examine the validity of the FrSBe through its association with the Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI).

Methods: A total of 226 participants (N=226) were included. FrSBe subscales and total scores were compared across diagnostic groups and healthy controls. Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) analyses were conducted to assess the discriminative ability of the scale, and correlations between FrSBe and NPI scores were also examined.

Results: Patients with AD, svFTD, and bvFTD demonstrated significantly higher FrSBe scores than healthy controls. Compared with the FTD groups, patients with AD exhibited significantly lower levels of apathy, disinhibtionsinhibition, executive dysfunction, and total behavioural disturbance. Associations were also observed between FrSBe scores and multiple NPI domains (such as apathy, disinhibtionsinhibition, irritability, agitation, aberrant motor behaviour, and total NPI scores). ROC analyses demonstrated satisfactory ability of the FrSBe to discriminate between patients with neurodegenerative diseases and healthy controls.

Conclusions: The findings are in accordance with the literature. FrSBe demonstrated satisfactory ability to distinguish healthy groups from patients with neurodegenerative diseases. The FrSBe is a useful tool for assessing behavioural disturbances in neurodegenerative diseases and distinguishing clinical from healthy controls. Further research is needed to establish its diagnostic accuracy across neurodegenerative disorders.

Keywords: FrSBe; NPI; Apathy; Disinhibition; Dysexecutive; Dementia

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Citation

Citation: Tatiana Dimitriou., et al. “Psychometric Validation of the Frontal Systems Behaviour Scale in Greek patients with Neurodegenerative Diseases". Acta Scientific Neurology 9.8 (2026): 35-43.

Copyright

Copyright: ©2026 Tatiana Dimitriou., 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.