A review of current information and communication technologies: can they be used to assess apathy?

Background Neuropsychiatric symptoms, such as apathy, have an important impact on the quality of life of both patients diagnosed with dementia and their caregivers and represent a strong predictor of progression of the illness. Current clinical assessment methods risk bias resulting from the assessor's subjectivity, pointing to a need for additional objective and systematic assessment tools. Therefore, the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) such as actigraphy and automatized video monitoring are of interest in addition to current assessment methods. Aim The goal of this study is to give an overview of current assessment tools for apathy in clinical practice and new approaches to assessment methods with the help ICT. Methods This study was conducted with the use of narrative literature overview. Results There is evidence that apart from the currently used assessment methods for apathy, new ICT approaches could provide clinicians with valuable additional information for an earlier detection and therefore more accurate diagnosis of apathy. Conclusions There are no ICT techniques specifically designed for the assessment of apathy, but nevertheless several techniques seem to be promising and deserve more study. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.