Environmental dependence syndrome

Environmental dependence syndrome is a syndrome where the affected individual relies on environmental cues to accomplish goals or tasks. It implies a disorder in personal autonomy where individual psychological traits influenced the way in which loss of autonomy was manifested. As an example, adults diagnosed with the symptom ADD rely on ADD coaches to provide the necessary cues at the appropriate times for the individual. This thus helps the individual make decisions to prioritize and order tasks.^[1] As another example patients with focal unilateral frontal lobe lesions were observed in different environments such as a doctor’s office, a lecture room, a car, a garden, while visiting an apartment where various activities were possible, and while in a gift shop. Individuals with this syndrome have a striking behavior, as though implicit in the environment was an order to respond to the situation in which they found themselves.^[2]