title: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological Science, University of Chieti, Italy.
authors.forename: Alberto
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Di Domenico
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological Science, University of Chieti, Italy; Schepens Eye Research Institute, Harvard Medical School, 20 Staniford St, Boston, 02114 MA, USA. Electronic address: rocco_palumbo@meei.harvard.edu.
authors.forename: Rocco
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Palumbo
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological Science, University of Chieti, Italy.
authors.forename: Beth
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Fairfield
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological Science, University of Chieti, Italy.
authors.forename: Nicola
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Mammarella
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy*; D057565:Apathy; D003213:Conditioning, Psychological; D003704:Dementia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D061345:Early Medical Intervention / Q000379:methods*; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009042:Motivation; D010865:Pilot Projects; D057566:Self Report
keywords: Apathy; Dementia; Emotional conditioning