The “Interest Game”: A Ludic Application to Improve Apathy Assessment in Patients with Neurocognitive Disorders

Abstract

Background:

Apathy, a highly prevalent behavioral disorder in Alzheimer’s disease and other related disorders, is currently assessed using clinical scales as it is for all neuropsychiatric disorders.

Objective:

The aim of this study is to propose a new type of assessment using new technologies designed to assess loss of interest by a more implicit and indirect method.

Methods:

The Interest Game is a form of interactive self-report, where categories of interests are presented in order to quantify them and identify the activities that constitute them. Two indices can be extracted, the number of categories and the number of activities selected. We compared the scores between three groups: Apathetic (A) and Non-Apathetic (NA) subjects (according to the Apathy Diagnostic Criteria) and controls with no objective cognitive impairment.

Results:

95 subjects were included. Results showed that subjects from the A group had significantly less interests (both categories and images selected) than the NA group. As expected, the control group selected a higher number of categories than the other groups. The diagnosis (minor or major neurocognitive disorder) and level of education had also a significant effect on the number of categories selected. Furthermore, subjects with major neurocognitive disorder (NCD) had significantly less interests than minor NCD group. The number of categories measure was more sensitive than the number of images selected.

Conclusion:

The Interest Game is a promising tool to quantify and identify subject interests and differentiate between apathetic and non-apathetic subjects. Future studies should focus on including more apathetic subjects in the minor NCD group and validating this tool with the general population.