Apathy is lack of motivation towards goal-directed behaviours. It is pervasive in a majority of psychiatric and neurological diseases, and impacts everyday life. Traditionally, apathy has been measured as a one-dimensional construct but is in fact composed of different types of demotivation.
Dimensional Apathy Scale (DAS)
The Dimensional Apathy Scale (DAS) is a multidimensional assessment for demotivation.
Apathy is composed of 3 subtypes (Radakovic & Abrahams, 2018):
- Executive: lack of motivation for planning, attention or organisation
- Emotional: lack of emotional motivation (indifference, affective or emotional neutrality, flatness or blunting)
- Initiation: lack of motivation for self-generation of thoughts and/or actions
The DAS measures these subtypes of apathy and allows for quick and easy assessment, through self-assessment, observations by informants/carers or administration by researchers or healthcare professionals.
The DAS was designed by Ratko Radakovic and Sharon Abrahams.