The Lille Apathy Rating Scale (LARS): exploring its psychometric properties in schizophrenia

Background: Apathy in schizophrenia patients is linked to marked functional impairments and can be defined as a quantitative reduction of voluntary, goal-directed behaviors. If there are now convincing arguments to consider apathy as a multidimensional psychopathological state (cognitive, emotional, and behavioral), there is a lack of validated and standardized instruments for detecting apathy and assessing its multidimensional aspects in schizophrenia. The Lille Apathy Rating Scale (LARS) is a semi-structured interview, yielding a global score and composite subscores for the different domains of apathy and has been validated in several different contexts but not in schizophrenia patients.

Objective: The aim of this study is to examine the psychometric properties of the LARS and identify the distinct components of apathy in a sample of schizophrenia patients.

Methods: One hundred-and-twelve schizophrenia patients were included and they completed the LARS, The Calgary Depression Scale in Schizophrenia, the Positive and the Negative Syndrome Scale and the Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms. The patient group was compared to 51 healthy control subjects.

Results: Principal component analysis showed that the LARS proved a single construct which forms the root of an oblique factor structure reflecting four dimensions: novelty and social life, behavioral involvement, emotional involvement, and judgment skills. The main psychometric properties of the LARS were satisfactory.

Conclusions: Our findings show that the LARS has satisfactory psychometric properties when used in a different setting than the original version. The LARS is a promising instrument to examine apathy in schizophrenia through a multidimensional framework.