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Brief Dimensional Apathy Scale (b-DAS)
Availability
Please visit this website for more information about the instrument: Brief Dimensional Apathy Scale
Classification
Supplemental: Parkinson's Disease (PD)
Short Description of Instrument
The brief Dimensional Apathy (b-DAS) is a 9 item short form of the informant/carer-rated DAS that measures apathy over the last month in three subscales: executive, emotional, and initiation behavior. This scale also includes an assessment of the patient's awareness of specific difficulties.
Comments/Special Instructions
To be completed by the informer/carer of the patient.
Scoring and Psychometric Properties
Scoring: Subscale scores range from 0 (low apathy) to 9 (high apathy).
 
Scores at or greater than 4 on executive, 5 on emotional, and 6 on initiation subscales indicate Impairment.
 
Each subscale has an awareness deficit score ranging from 0 (intact) to 3 (severe).
 
Psychometric Properties: In ALS, the b-DAS has good internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha=0.82), good test-retest (ICC= 0.84), good convergent validity to full DAS subscales (executive r[51]=0.87, p<.001; emotional r[51]=0.80, p<.001; initiation r[51]=0.90, p < .001) and good discrimination (not correlated with Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7), Emotional Lability Questionnaire (ELQ)); (Radakovic et al., 2020).
Rationale/Justification
Strengths: Less than 5 minutes to complete and easy to administer. Multidimensional assessment of apathy.
 
Weaknesses: The b-DAS has not been validated in PD.
References
Key References:
Radakovic R, Gray D, Dudley K, Mioshi E, Dick D, Melchiorre G, Gordon H, Newton J, Colville S, Pal S, Chandran S, Abrahams S. Reliability and validity of the brief dimensional apathy scale. Arch Clin Neuropsychol. 2020 Jul 24;35(5):539-544.
 
Radakovic R, McGrory S, Chandran S, Swingler R, Pal S, Stephenson L, Colville S, Newton J, Starr JM, Abrahams S. The brief Dimensional Apathy Scale: A short clinical assessment of apathy. Clin Neuropsychol. 2020 Feb;34(2):423-435.
 
Additional Reference:
Radakovic R, Abrahams S. Developing a new apathy measurement scale: Dimensional Apathy Scale. Psychiatry Res. 2014 Nov 30;219(3):658-63.
 
Document last updated August 2022