Related articles: Apathy
Definition
Apathy is an emotional-affective condition characterized by an attitude of indifference towards people and reality.
The phenomenon can be expressed in the form of psychomotor slowdown, insensitivity or lack of reactions towards the most varied situations of everyday life, which normally should arouse interest or emotion.
The apathetic person refuses any kind of emotional involvement and shows signs of detachment towards the environment that surrounds him. In the most serious cases, apathy can manifest itself as a response to frustrating situations and failures in general.
This symptom is found with particular frequency in schizophrenia and in some depressive states. Sometimes the condition is induced by the abuse of drugs (eg cocaine and amphetamines) and by alcoholism.
Apathy may also depend on specific medical conditions, such as Huntington's disease, hyperthyroidism, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease and senile dementia. Furthermore, it may be associated with nutritional deficiencies (eg scurvy), hepatic encephalopathy, intracranial tumors, traumatic brain injury, stroke, porphyria, tuberculous meningitis, yellow fever and syphilis.
Possible Causes * of Apathy
- Alcoholism
- Vascular dementia
- Major depression
- Wernicke's encephalopathy
- Yellow fever
- Stroke
- Hyperthyroidism
- Huntington's disease
- Meningitis
- Alzheimer's disease
- Parkinson's disease
- Pellagra
- Porphyria
- Schizophrenia
- Multiple sclerosis
- Scurvy
- Syphilis
