Psychology & Psychiatry

Psychiatric symptoms in Alzheimer´s disease

In addition to memory problems and other cognitive symptoms, most people with Alzheimer's disease also suffer from mental health issues. It has long been unclear whether these occur because of tissue changes in the brain, ...

Alzheimer's disease & dementia

Apathy could predict onset of dementia years before other symptoms

Apathy—a lack of interest or motivation—could predict the onset of some forms of dementia many years before symptoms start, offering a 'window of opportunity' to treat the disease at an early stage, according to new research ...

Psychology & Psychiatry

Apathy, not depression, helps to predict dementia

Apathy offers an important early warning sign of dementia in individuals with cerebrovascular disease, but depression does not, new research led by the University of Cambridge suggests.

Neuroscience

Apathy as an indicator of progression in Huntington's disease

Researchers from the brain cognition and plasticity group of the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL) and the Neuroscience Institute of the University of Barcelona (UBNeuro) have led an innovative study that ...

Alzheimer's disease & dementia

Apathy: The forgotten symptom of dementia

Apathy is the most common neuropsychiatric symptom of dementia, with a bigger impact on function than memory loss—yet it is under-researched and often forgotten in care.

Neuroscience

Moving the motivation meter

Two novel drugs kickstart motivation in rats suffering from apathy and a lack of oomph, UConn researchers reported at the Society for Neuroscience conference in San Diego on Nov. 5.

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Apathy (also called impassivity or perfunctoriness) is a state of indifference, or the suppression of emotions such as concern, excitement, motivation and passion. An apathetic individual has an absence of interest in or concern about emotional, social, spiritual, philosophical and/or physical life. But contrary to this, an apathetic individual may take interest in emotional, social, spiritual, philosophical and/or physical life's attributes. Not necessarily to end that apathy but in order to find a deeper meaning to the existential meaning of being, part of which necessitates apathy, for we are by definition 'without meaning'.

They may lack a sense of purpose or meaning in their life. He or she may also exhibit insensibility or sluggishness. The opposite of apathy is flow. In positive psychology, apathy is described as a result of the individual feeling they do not possess the level of skill required to confront a challenge. It may also be a result of perceiving no challenge at all (e.g. the challenge is irrelevant to them, or conversely, they have learned helplessness). In light of the insurmountable certainty of universal doom, apathy is the default mode of existential nihilism, and, as such, is not considered to be a pathological state by those who experience it. (See the works of Arthur Schopenhauer).

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