Avolition is the lack of spontaneous, goal-directed behavior, initiative, and decision-making. It is a relatively rare but very debilitating condition. It is widely observed when there are lesions in the basal ganglia and frontal lobe.
Abulia is further characterized by difficulty in initiating or maintaining spontaneous movements and a reduction in emotional response, thinking, spontaneous speech, and social interaction; Poor attention and distractibility are also often observed.
It can be part of the negative symptoms of the spectrum of schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders, depressive disorders, Alzheimer’s, vascular dementia, Parkinson’s, dementia with Lewy bodies and frontotemporal dementia.
Some of the pharmacological treatments include dopaminergic drugs since avolition is believed to be a disorder in the meso-cortico-limbic dopaminergic system, and some studies (, , , ) have found evidence of improvements in patients with severe avolition.
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