title: Diagnosis and assessment of apathy in Chinese patients with Alzheimer's disease.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Apathy is a major component of the behavioral and psychological symptoms of Alzheimer's Disease (AD) and other types of dementia. Most researchers have reached a consensus on a new set of diagnostic criteria for apathy (DCA) recently. However, no relevant reports on apathy exist for AD patients in Asian countries yet.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To estimate the prevalence of apathy in Chinese AD patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  83 AD patients were recruited for a cross-sectional observational study. Following the new diagnostic criteria for apathy (DCA) and DSM-IV criteria for Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), each patient was assessed successively by Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE), the Neuropsychiatric Inventory-apathy subscale (NPI-apathy), the Geriatric Depression Screening scale (GDS), and the Caregiver Burden Scale (CBS).
  
  
  RESULTS
  According to the DCA, we found that the frequency of apathy in Chinese AD patients reached 61.4%. The DCA had very good standard validity and internal consistency. The frequency of apathy was not significantly associated with that of depression, whereas there was a significant association between apathy and more severe cognitive deficits. Caregiver burden was significantly associated with severity of apathy.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  From the symptoms of a group of Chinese AD patients, we summarized a set of effective methods for the diagnosis and assessment of apathy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Changzheng Hospital, Second Military Medical University of PLA, Shanghai, PR China.
authors.forename: Hongyi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Zhongxin
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Liuqing
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Maurice
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Preter
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D057565:Apathy; D044466:Asian People / Q000523:psychology; D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology; D002681:China; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D015995:Prevalence; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012720:Severity of Illness Index