Apathy in Schizophrenia

L'apathie Dans La Schizophrénie: Étude Neuropsychologique Et Anatomique

Status

Completed

Phases

Unknown

Study type

Observational

Source

ClinicalTrials.gov

Registry ID

NCT01689181

Enrollment

Registered

2012-09-21

Start date

2012-06-30

Completion date

2013-06-05

Last updated

2025-01-23

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Apathy, Schizophrenia

Brief summary

Apathy, defined as a quantitative reduction of voluntary, goal-directed behaviours (GDB), is a core component of negative symptoms. It has been suggested that the physiopathology of apathy is not a single entity but may be multiple, depending on which specific process or macrofunction is disrupted during completion of GDB. In line with this notion, Levy and Dubois proposed dividing apathic syndromes into three subtypes of disrupted processing: 'a-motivation', 'cognitive inertia', and 'uncoupling'. In schizophrenia, apathy has been associated with executive dysfunction, functional impairment and poor outcome. However, the neurobiological underpinnings of apathy in schizophrenia are poorly understood. Primary objective: confirm that chronic schizophrenic patients are apathic compared to healthy volunteers Secondary objectives: * investigate if apathy is related to a particular aspect of the disease (i.e. negative, positive symptomatology and/or deficit form) * investigate if apathy correlates with executive dysfunction * investigate if apathy is associated with a specific mechanism using an experimental task specially designed to investigate the different mechanism (i.e. 'a-motivation', 'cognitive inertia', and 'uncoupling') * investigate if there is a volumetric abnormality affecting the executive system in apathic schizophrenic patients * link these eventual volumetric abnormalities to prefrontal cortex-basal ganglia circuits according to a specific subtype of apathy in the apathic schizophrenic group

Interventions

None listed

Study design

Observational model

CASE_CONTROL

Time perspective

CROSS_SECTIONAL

Eligibility

Sex/Gender

ALL

Age

20 Years to 55 Years

Healthy volunteers

Yes

Inclusion criteria

(healthy volunteers): * Male or Female aged 20 to 55 years old included * Under French public assurance system

Exclusion criteria

(healthy volunteers): * Personal history of neurological disorders * Personal history of head injury * Alcohol or substance abuse * Under psychotropic drug * Contraindication for MRI Inclusion Criteria (schizophrenic patients): * Male or Female aged 20 to 55 years old included * Under French public assurance system * diagnosis of schizophrenia according to the DSM-IV R criteria * Duration of illness \> 5 years * clinical stability during the past 2 months (defined as no treatment modification or hospitalisation 2 months prior evaluation)

Design outcomes

Primary

Measure	Time frame
apathy as measured by Starkstein's Apathy Evaluation Scale	baseline

Secondary

Measure	Time frame	Description
neuropsychological performance	baseline	* Global mental efficience: Mill Hill B and Raven's progressive matrices 38 * Executive functioning:Modified Card Sorting Test, Trail Making A and B, Stroop Test, Verbal Fluences, Frontal Assessment Battery (FAB, Dubois et al., 2000) * Social and Emotional Cognition: SEA (Social and Emotional Evaluation (SEA, Funkiewiez et al., 2012) * Working memory (Grober and Buschke - 16 items, digit span) * Instrumental functions: Rey Osterrieth Complex figure)
clinical assessment (for patients only)	baseline	scores on evaluation scales (PANSS, SAPS, SANS, CDS, SDS)
volumetric brain abnormalities	baseline	voxel based morphometry

Countries

France

Outcome results