• Ratko Radakovic and Sharon Abrahams.
• Psychology-School of Philosophy, Psychology & Language Sciences, University of Edinburgh, UK; Alzheimer Scotland Dementia Research Centre, University of Edinburgh, UK; Anne Rowling Regenerative Neurology Clinic, University of Edinburgh, UK; Euan MacDonald Centre for MND Research, University of Edinburgh, UK. Electronic address: r.radakovic@sms.ed.ac.uk.
• Psychiatry Res. 2014 Nov 30;219(3):658-63.

AbstractApathy is both a symptom and syndrome prevalent in neurodegenerative disease, including motor system disorders, that affects motivation to display goal directed functions. Levy and Dubois (2006) suggested three apathetic subtypes, Cognitive, Emotional-affective and Auto-activation, all with discrete neural correlates and functional impairments. The aim of this study was to create a new apathy measure; the Dimensional Apathy Scale (DAS), which assesses apathetic subtypes and is suitable for use in patient groups with motor dysfunction. 311 healthy participants (mean=37.4, S.D.=15.0) completed a 45-item questionnaire. Horn's parallel analysis of principal factors and Exploratory Factor Analysis resulted in 4 factors (Executive, Emotional, Cognitive Initiation and Behavioural Initiation) that account for 28.9% of the total variance. Twenty four items were subsequently extracted to form 3 subscales--Executive, Emotional and Behavioural/Cognitive Initiation. The subscale items show good internal consistency reliability. A weak to moderate relationship was found with depression using Becks Depression Inventory II. The DAS is a well-constructed method for assessing multidimensional apathy suitable for application to investigate this syndrome in different disease pathologies.Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

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