Krista Lanctôt, PhD, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada, discusses the newly established diagnostic criteria for apathy which are paving the way for future clinical trials looking at apathy in dementia. The recently published criteria for the diagnosis of major and minor neurocognitive disorders were decided by representatives from academia, healthcare, industry, and regulatory bodies, including members of the NPS-PIA, who agreed on consensus criteria to diagnose clinically significant apathy in neurocognitive disorders. This diagnosis is based on diminished interest, diminished initiation, and diminished emotional responsiveness/expression. Together, this updates previous diagnostic criteria by utilizing knowledge of the neural circuitry which underlies apathy, particularly that there is different neural circuitry for initiative, interest, and emotional blunting. This interview took place at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference (AAIC) 2022 in San Diego, CA.
