B – 102 Apathy is associated with worse everyday functioning in a mixed clinical sample of veterans

Abstract Objective Apathy is common in a variety of neuropsychological populations; however, specific associations with everyday functioning are not well characterized. The present study examined whether global and dimensional aspects of apathy were associated with everyday functioning in a diverse sample of veterans referred for neuropsychological evaluation. Method Eighty-four community-dwelling veterans (mean age = 69.1, 84.5% male) completed the Dimensional Apathy Scale (DAS), Geriatric Depression Scale – Short Form (GDS-SF), Structured Inventory of Malingered Symptomatology – Amnestic Disorders subscale (SIMS-AM), and the Patient Competency Rating Scale (PCRS) assessing self-reported activities of daily living (ADL) as part of their clinical neuropsychological evaluation. Multiple regression analyses tested associations between apathy scores (i.e., global, cognitive, initiation, and emotional) and PCRS-ADL scores while controlling for depressive symptoms and symptom invalidity. Results At the global level, higher apathy was significantly correlated with greater ADL difficulties (rp = –.34 to –.51). At the dimensional level, both cognitive and initiation apathy were related to ADL difficulties in univariate and adjusted models (ps<.05), whereas emotional apathy was not (ps>.05). In a model including all apathy dimensions, depressive symptoms, and symptom invalidity, only cognitive apathy independently predicted ADL difficulties (β=–.36, p=.007). Conclusion The cognitive aspects of apathy may be a particularly salient predictor of everyday functioning in community-dwelling veterans undergoing neuropsychological assessment. These findings underscore the value of using multidimensional apathy measures in both clinical and research settings to better capture the everyday difficulties that can accompany motivational disturbances.