Abstract
Objective: The study aimed to estimate the frequency of apathy in Chinese patients with cerebral small vessel disease (CSVD) and investigate the relationship between apathy and neuroimaging markers of CSVD.Methods: A total of 150 CSVD aged patients were recruited for a cross-sectional observational study. Following the new revised version of diagnostic criteria for apathy (DCA), each patient was evaluated successively by the neuropsychiatric inventory (NPI-apathy), geriatric depression scale (GDS), and caregiver burden scale (CBS). The MRI presence of lacunes, white matter hyperintensities, cerebral microbleeds, and perivascular spaces were rated independently. Furthermore, presence of all these MRI markers were summed in a score of 0–4 representing all CSVD features combined.Results: According to the DCA, we found that the frequency of apathy in Chinese Alzheimer's disease patients reached 37.33%, with lack of and diminished goal-directed activities in the dimension of behavior/cognition. We did not find a close relationship between apathy and depression. Caregiver burden was positively correlated with apathy severity. Apathy, but not depression, was positively associated with total CSVD burden, rather than a separate MRI marker of CSVD.Conclusion: As a key component of neuropsychiatric symptoms, apathy was common in Chinese elderly with CSVD, more attention should be paid to apathy in clinical practice of CSVD.
Highlights
Cerebral small vessel disease (CSVD) refers to a group of pathological processes which affect the small arteries, arterioles, venules, and capillaries of the brain [1]
Recent studies reported that neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS) are quite common in CSVD patients [3,4,5]
It has been confirmed that apathy can be found in many neurological diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Parkinson disease (PD), Huntington disease (HD), etc., [7,8,9]
Summary
Cerebral small vessel disease (CSVD) refers to a group of pathological processes which affect the small arteries, arterioles, venules, and capillaries of the brain [1]. Recent studies reported that neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS) are quite common in CSVD patients [3,4,5]. Apathy was defined as a lack of motivation that persists over time and causes identifiable functional impairment [6]. It has been confirmed that apathy can be found in many neurological diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Parkinson disease (PD), Huntington disease (HD), etc., [7,8,9]. Based on the vast sub-cortical changes in CSVD patients that overlap with undermined brain circuits in apathy [10], vascular apathy was hypothesized recently [11]
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