medical Definition of avolition
:a lack of interest or engagement in goal-directed behavior
- Many people with schizophrenia experience avolition, or apathy, feeling drained of energy and of interest in normal goals and unable to start or follow through on a course of action.
- —Ronald J. Comer, Abnormal Psychology, 7th edition, 2010
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avolitional
play \(ˈ)ā-ˌvō-ˈlish-nəl, -ˈli-shə-nᵊl, -və-\ adjective-
- In studies at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center, we have found that schizophrenia patients with avolitional pathology are a minority and that the presence of that pathology helps define a separate putative disease entity within the schizophrenia syndrome …
- —William T. Carpenter, The American Journal of Psychiatry, September 2010
