The measurement of apathy and lack of initiative with the Apathy Evaluation Scale
Poster A101, Thursday, October 20, 11:30 am - 1:00 pm, Le Baron
Antonio Preti1, Rosanna Scanu1, Tamara Muratore1, Rossana Scerman1, Carlotta Cadoni1, Antonio Manca1, Giovanni D’Errico1, Marta Carrus1, Donatella R. Petretto1; 1University of Cagliari
Purpose: Apathy and lack of initiative may represent early symptoms in the onset of psychosis. This study set out to evaluate the psychometric properties of the self-report Italian version of the Apathy Evaluation Scale (AES). Materials and Methods: The study is based on the second and third waves of the Cagliari Psychosis Investigation on Risk Emergence (CAPIRE, which in Italian language means to understand). Participants were 109 male and 134 female undergraduate students (mean age: 24 +/- 3.5 years) in the first study, and 100 patients with severe mental disorders (40% with schizophrenia; 40% with affective psychosis) and 112 sex and age matched controls (mean age: 41 +/-13 years) in the second study. Results: In both studies the AES showed good reliability in term of internal coherence and test-retest stability (> 0.80 in students, in patients, and in their control counterpart). Convergent and divergent validity was established by correlation with measures of positive and negative schizotypy. Three correlated dimensions were retrieved by principal component analysis in the first study, which were replicated by confirmatory factor analysis in the second study. The AES discriminated patients from controls in the second study with large effect size. Conclusion: The AES can detect apathy and lack of initiative in both patients with severe mental disorders and non help-seeking youths.
Topic Area: First Episode Psychosis