Evaluation of apathy among institutionalized older persons: Its mediating role between cognitive functioning and lack of awareness.

Objectives: The main objective of this study was to determine the directions of the relationships between apathy, cognitive deficits and lack of awareness.

Methods: One hundred and twenty-one older persons living in nursing homes, aged between 65 and 99 years old, participated in the study. Cognitive functioning, autonomy, depressive and anxious symptoms, general self-efficacy, self-esteem and apathy were evaluated through tests and questionnaires.

[Updates on anosognosia in Alzheimer's disease].

Impaired awareness increases dependency of patients suffering from Alzheimer's Disease (AD) and caregivers' burden but remains insufficiently evaluated in clinical practice. The numerous conceptualisations of this symptomatology (anosognosia, denial, insight…) have only a slight impact on the three main assessment methodologies which are: the patient-caregiver discrepancy; the clinician rating of patients' awareness of illness; and the prediction of performance discrepancy methods. Nevertheless, most of evaluating tools are not validated yet, in particular regarding the clinician rating, leading to contrasted results.