
Health Dictionary
Reliable, easy-to-read patient information on common medical conditions — written in plain language, free of jargon, and grounded in current evidence. Browse the most frequent diagnoses, understand what they mean for everyday life, and learn which steps and questions help you have a focused conversation with your doctor.
Environmental dependence syndrome
Introduction
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]
References
References
- ↑ http://gradda.home.isp-direct.com/su97coac.html
- ↑ Human autonomy and the frontal lobes. Part II: Patient behavior in complex and social situations: The environmental dependency syndrome http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=3707085&dopt=Abstract
