Neurology: Lack of interest in life may make you more likely to develop dementia

21, 2020 // -- In a recent study published in the international journal Newology, scientists from the Alzheimer's Research Institute and others in the United Kingdom found that individuals who lack interest in the world around them are at increased risk of developing dementia.
The researchers wanted to analyze whether the onset of dementia was associated with individual emotional apathy (no interest), indifferent people who tended to lack interest in the world/environment around them, and indifference, which included stopping participation in normal people's activities, showing little emotion, and lack of physical vitality.
: In the CC0 Public Domain study, researchers asked more than 2,000 people to assess their apathy, while the researchers also effectively distinguished apathy from individual depression and anxiety disorders.
They divided the volunteers into three groups: low-level apathy, moderate apathy, and severe apathy, and then the researchers used algorithms based on information and medical records from dementia drugs to determine whether participants developed dementia and whether their memory and thinking skills declined significantly.
Researchers followed participants for nine years and found that 381 participants were at risk of developing dementia, and the researchers said that participants with severe apathy had a significantly increased risk of developing dementia compared to participants with low levels of apathy.
researcher Sara Imarisio says apathy is common in people with dementia, but it's not necessarily a symptom of depression, and many people with dementia are misdiagnosed as depressed, especially in the early stages of the disease, and better understanding of less well-known symptoms of dementia, such as apathy, may hopefully help researchers better develop and develop new treatments for dementia.
In this study, scientists used special algorithms to identify potential dementia patients, and diagnosis of dementia does not necessarily need to be confirmed by doctors; understanding how body health and lifestyle factors affect the risk of dementia is important, and researchers do not yet know whether apathy induces memory problems, or vice versa.
original source: Meredith A. Bock, Amber Bahorik, Willa D. Brenowitz, et al. Apathy and risk of probable incident dementia communityamong-dwelling older adults, Neurology (2020). DOI: 10.1212/wnl.0000000000010951