Tuesday News Day: Apathy — a Possible Warning Sign

New research suggests that an unexplained lack of interest in usual activities could be an early indicator of dementia.  Apathy, which the authors define as decreased motivation and goal-directed behavior, is separate from but often found in conjunction with depression. Previous research has shown apathy as a prevalent factor across multiple conditions of dementia, but this is the first study to investigate it as an independent risk factor or prodrome (an early symptom signaling the onset of a disease). A key finding is that people who had severe apathy at baseline were twice as likely to develop dementia over the 9 years of the study as compared to those not showing signs of apathy at baseline. While not a sole indicator, apathy could be an important early warning sign for doctors to consider in caring for patients. Learn more about the study at this link.