Fighting apathy in Alzheimer's dementia: A brief emotional-based intervention

Abstract

Lack of motivation, or apathy, is a clinically significant feature among dementia patients. The current study aimed to assess the effectiveness of a brief emotional shaping intervention developed to reduce apathy and increase willingness-to-do in Alzheimer's Dementia patients. To this end, 26 Alzheimer patients diagnosed with apathy according to the Apathy Evaluation Scale (AES, Marin et al.,1991) and 26 healthy older controls performed an emotional shaping task intended to unconsciously foster willingness-to-do. Participants were randomly assigned to either a positive or a neutral conditioning situation. Results showed how the positively conditioned group was associated with improved willingness-to-do in both patients and controls compared to the neutrally conditioned group. Our findings suggest that unconscious emotional processing can be used to treat apathy symptoms and increase willingness-to-do in Alzheimer's Dementia.

Keywords: Apathy; Dementia; Emotional conditioning.