Emotional reaction in nursing home residents with dementia-associated apathy: A pilot study

Abstract

Introduction

Conventionally apathy is defined as a symptom primarily characterized by loss of feelings and emotional display and is the most common behavioural symptom in dementia patients. Neuronal network of emotions has ceased to function in patients suffering from dementia associated apathy.

Objective and methods

We measured changes in skin conductance and heart rate from n=12 demented nursing home residents with clinical significant apathy (sumscore>40 in the Apathy Evaluation Scale, AES) to images taken from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS, Lang et al., 2008). Additionally we used autobiographical material to study the responsiveness of the neuronal network of emotions and the adequacy of somatic indicators to demonstrate emotional reactions in individuals diagnosed with dementia and apathy.

Results

Analysis of the EDA data revealed a significant difference in the change of skin conductance between the different image categories. The autobiographical material generated the largest change in skin conductance. Analysis of the heart rate did not yield any significant difference between the image categories.

Conclusions

Our findings demonstrate that the neuronal network underlying emotion is still responsive in patients diagnosed with dementia associated apathy, although residents don׳t seem to be involved emotionally from an extraneous visual focus. Non pharmacological therapy approaches should deal with individual, familiar, autobiographic material to ensure a high level of emotional response and therefore reduce apathy severity.