The significance of frontal system disorders for medical practice and health policy
Abstract
In major chronic diseases, apathy or impaired executive cognitive function (ECF) can reduce the patient's ability to cope with the disease and its treatment and to maintain personal safety, dignity, and goal-directed activity. Psychometric and imaging studies support a causal role for frontal system dysfunction. The view that frontal system dysfunction mediates or aggravates disability in a wide range of psychiatric and nonpsychiatric disorders 1) motivates further research on how ECF deficits interact with specific physical impairments to produce disability; 2) supports policies that base entitlements to care on ECF impairments; and 3) suggests the need for a vigorous search for drugs that prevent or palliate prefrontal dysfunction, especially the syndromes of apathy and impaired ECF.
Access content
To read the fulltext, please use one of the options below to sign in or purchase access.- Personal login
- Institutional Login
- Sign in via OpenAthens
- Register for access
-
Please login/register if you wish to pair your device and check access availability.
Not a subscriber?
PsychiatryOnline subscription options offer access to the DSM-5 library, books, journals, CME, and patient resources. This all-in-one virtual library provides psychiatrists and mental health professionals with key resources for diagnosis, treatment, research, and professional development.
Need more help? PsychiatryOnline Customer Service may be reached by emailing [email protected] or by calling 800-368-5777 (in the U.S.) or 703-907-7322 (outside the U.S.).
