A recent study published by the University of Houston Health Sciences Center (UTHealth Houston) revealed a key finding: in patients with mild cognitive impairment, apathy is likely to be an early warning sign of Alzheimer's disease progression, providing doctors with a possible early diagnostic tool.
Apathy, i.e., lack or diminished interest in doing things or achieving goals, is one of the common neuropsychiatric symptoms in people with cognitive impairment.
The study utilized the Texas Alzheimer's Disease Research and Care Consortium (TARCC) cohort and was conducted in collaboration with researchers at UTHealth Houston and the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. They gave the participants' family members and caregivers a questionnaire with the Neuropsychiatric Scale, asking them to assess the presence and severity of 12 neuropsychiatric symptoms, including apathy.
Through the analysis of data of 1092 patients for eight years, it was found that 190 patients developed Alzheimer's disease, accounting for 17.3%. In patients with mild cognitive impairment, the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease was 2.4 times higher in patients with apathy than in patients without apathy.
In light of these findings, it is suggested that clinicians should assess individuals exhibiting apathy symptoms for early intervention. This is because the assessment of apathy is cost-effective and does not require expensive equipment.
It is recommended to score indifferently for your reference
Apathy is a symptom common in a variety of psychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders, manifesting as decreased interest, diminished emotional responses, and decreased motivation. A common tool used to assess apathy in the clinic is the Apathy Evaluation Scale (AES), particularly its clinician version (AES-C). This scale can help doctors quantify a patient's level of apathy to aid in diagnosis and monitor changes in the condition. The following is a simplified version of the apathy symptom scale for reference:
Please rate each of the following statements on how much you agree with each of the following statements based on your past week, with 1 being not at all and 4 being very consistent.
1. I don't feel as interested in the activities I used to be interested in.
- 1. Not at all
- 2. Kind of non-compliant
- 3. More compliant
- 4. Very much in line with
2. I find it hard to start doing something, even though I know I should do it.
- 1. Not at all
- 2. Kind of non-compliant
- 3. More compliant
- 4. Very much in line with
3. I don't care about my appearance or personal hygiene as much as I used to.
- 1. Not at all
- 2. Kind of non-compliant
- 3. More compliant
- 4. Very much in line with
4. I feel flat in response to what's happening around me and don't have mood swings like I used to.
- 1. Not at all
- 2. Kind of non-compliant
- 3. More compliant
- 4. Very much in line with
5. I rarely take the initiative to come up with new ideas or plans.
- 1. Not at all
- 2. Kind of non-compliant
- 3. More compliant
- 4. Very much in line with
The scores for each question are summed to get a total score. The higher the total score, the more pronounced the apathy symptoms may be.
参考文献——Apathy as a Predictor of Conversion from Mild Cognitive Impairment to Alzheimer’s Disease: A Texas Alzheimer’s Research and Care Consortium (TARCC) Cohort-Based Analysis