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Published on: January 26, 2019
Reduced daytime activity in patients with acquired brain damage and apathy: a study with ambulatory actigraphy
Ulrich Müller1, Jana Czymmek, Angelika Thöne-Otto
1Department of Psychiatry, University of Leipzig, Germany. um207@cam.ac.uk
Primary Objective:
Apathy is difficult to assess in clinical practice. Ambulatory actigraphy was used with the aim to measure locomotor activity during the daytime as a correlate of self-initiated action in brain-damaged patients with apathy.
Research Design:
Twenty-four patients with acquired brain damage and high levels of apathy or low levels of apathy as well as 12 healthy controls were investigated using a parallel group design.
Methods And Procedures:
Apathy was diagnosed after clinical observation and evaluated with the apathy evaluation scale. Locomotor activity was measured with a wrist-worn actigraph over 3 days.
Results:
High apathy patients showed significantly reduced locomotor activity and more episodes of inactivity (naps) during the daytime. Self-rated apathy correlated with daytime activity, nap frequency and cognitive (executive) deficits.
Conclusions:
Ambulatory actigraphy is a promising method to evaluate self-initiated action in patients with apathy.
