Apathy is defined as a primary loss of motivation in the absence of emotional distress, intellectual impairment or clouding of consciousness. High rates of apathy occur in Parkinson’s disease (PD), with some authors suggesting that it is a core feature of the disease. The factors that influence the occurrence of apathy in PD are controversial, however some factors are consistently found to be a...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Apathy is associated with decreased novelty-seeking behaviors and is a prevailing behavioral symptom after stroke affecting cortical and subcortical regions. We studied the relationship between apathetic state after subcortical stroke and neural orienting response to novel events using an event-related evoked potential (ERP) technique. METHODS Twenty-nine patients with ...

The aim of the study is to evaluate whether depression or apathy in patients with amnestic-mild cognitive impairment (MCI) increases the risk of progressing to Alzheimer's disease (AD). We investigated 131 consecutive memory-clinic outpatients with newly-diagnosed amnestic-MCI (mean age 70.8, SD=6.5). Psychiatric disorders were diagnosed at baseline according to the criteria for depression and ...

OBJECTIVE To determine the prevalence, incidence, persistence, likely causes, and consequences of apathy in patients with Type 2 diabetes and to compare the prevalence with a healthy control sample. DESIGN Cross-sectional comparison of diabetic and nondiabetic samples; longitudinal follow-up of diabetic sample. SETTING Academic research department. PARTICIPANTS Non-demented, older patient...

Apathy has been defined as lack of motivation. It has been traditionally considered as a symptom of psychiatric disorders, such as major depression and schizophrenia, but more recently it has been recognized as a specific neuropsychiatric syndrome associated with neurodegenerative such as Parkinson's disease (PD). As a consequence the reported prevalence of apathy in PD ranges from 13.9% to 70%...

In Parkinson's disease (PD), apathy (or loss of motivation) is frequent. Nevertheless, the contribution of attentional disorders to its genesis is still not clearly known. We want to determine the relation existing between apathy and attentional disorders by using P300a (or novelty P3) as a marker of the attentional process. The study included 25 patients (13 women and 12 men) with PD for whom ...

Aim: Apathy is one of the most common behavioral symptoms in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The aim of our study was to assess the relationship between apathy and locomotor activity in mild Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Methods: Thirty AD subjects and fifteen healthy controls were recruited from the Nice Memory Center. Apathy was assessed with the Apathy Inventory (AI). Patients with a score greater tha...

Apathy, or a lack of motivation, has been increasingly recognized as a distinct psychiatric syndrome. Apathy is primarily a dysfunction of the frontal-subcortical circuit and is associated with various neuropsychiatric disorders including Alzheimer's disease. Apathy is associated with a number of adverse outcomes, including apparent cognitive impairment, decreased daily function, poor insight i...