Developing a new apathy measurement scale: Dimensional Apathy Scale

Apathy 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.