Overcoming apathy in frontotemporal dementia: challenges and future directions

Apathy is a common symptom in frontotemporal dementia that is associated with functional decline and carer stress. Evidence suggests that apathy presents differently depending on patterns of brain atrophy, and emerges earlier and is more severe in behavioural-variant frontotemporal dementia than in semantic dementia or progressive nonfluent aphasia. Previously, apathy was assessed as a unidimensional construct using informant report questionnaires. Recent theories, however, conceptualise apathy as a multidimensional construct manifesting with affective, behavioural and cognitive symptoms. Research has started to focus on developing more objective, multidimensional behavioural assessments of apathy to clarify the nature of apathy in frontotemporal dementia. This will facilitate development of better interventions to support optimal function in these syndromes.