Inattention
Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]
Overview
Inattention is a failure to pay close attention to details or making careless mistakes when doing work or other activities, trouble keeping attention focused during tasks, appearing not to listen when spoken to, failure to follow instructions or finish tasks, avoiding tasks that require a high amount of mental effort and organization, such as projects, frequently losing items required to facilitate tasks or activities, such as supplies, excessive distractibility, forgetfulness, procrastination i.e. inability to begin an activity, difficulties with activities (cleaning, administrative, etc.), difficulty falling asleep which may be due to too many thoughts at night, frequent emotional outbursts, easily frustrated, and easily distracted.
Causes
Common Causes
- Alcohol abuse
- Attention deficit disorder
- ADHD
- Autism
- Bipolar disorder
- Depression
- Learning disabilities
- Narcolepsy
- Oppositional defiant disorder
- Sleep deprivation
Causes by Organ System
Causes in Alphabetical Order
- Aarskog syndrome
- Attention deficit disorder
- Addison’s disease
- Alcohol abuse
- Anxiety
- Attention deficit and disruptive behavior disorders
- Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
- Autism
- Bipolar disorder
- Central pontine myelinosis
- Chromosome 2p16.1-p15 deletion syndrome
- Chronic fatigue syndrome
- Cocaine abuse
- Depression
- Drug abuse
- Fetal alcohol syndrome
- Global developmental delay-osteopenia-ectodermal defect
- Huntington’s disease
- Learning disabilities
- Mild traumatic brain injury
- Multiple sclerosis
- Nabilone
- Narcolepsy
- Oppositional defiant disorder
- PANDAS
- Pfiesteria poisoning
- Pick’s disease
- Potocki-Lupski syndrome
- Schilder’s disease
- Sleep apnea
- Sleep deprivation
- Smith-Magenis syndrome
- WAGR syndrome
- Williams syndrome
- Zunich-Kaye syndrome
References
© 2026 MyEClinic – IFTM Institut für Telematik in der Medizin GmbH