Anosodiaphoria is a condition in which a person who suffers disability

Disability

A disability may be physical, cognitive, mental, sensory, emotional, developmental or some combination of these.Many people would rather be referred to as a person with a disability instead of handicapped...

 due to brain injury

Acquired brain injury

An acquired brain injury is brain damage caused by events after birth, rather than as part of a genetic or congenital disorder such as fetal alcohol syndrome, perinatal illness or perinatal hypoxia. ABI can result in cognitive, physical, emotional, or behavioural impairments that lead to permanent...

 seems indifferent to the existence of their handicap. Anosophoria is specifically used in association with indifference to paralysis. It is a somatosensory agnosia, or a sign of neglect syndrome. Most often anosodiaphoria is a lesion of the right parietal hemisphere.

Neurology

Anosodiaphoria occurs after stroke

Stroke

A stroke, previously known medically as a cerebrovascular accident , is the rapidly developing loss of brain function due to disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. This can be due to ischemia caused by blockage , or a hemorrhage...

 of the brain.

Anosodiaphoria is thought to be related to unilateral neglect, a condition often found after damage to the non-dominant (usually the right) hemisphere of the cerebral cortex

Cerebral cortex

The cerebral cortex is a sheet of neural tissue that is outermost to the cerebrum of the mammalian brain. It plays a key role in memory, attention, perceptual awareness, thought, language, and consciousness. It is constituted of up to six horizontal layers, each of which has a different...

in which sufferers seem unable to attend to, or sometimes comprehend, anything on a certain side of their body (usually the left).

Further reading

• Prigatano, G. and Schacter, D. (eds) (1991) Awareness of Deficit After Brain Injury: Clinical and Theoretical Issues. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-505941-7
• Anosognosia: The neurology of beliefs and uncertainties. Vuilleumier, P. (2004) Cortex, 40, 9-17.
• Vilayanur S. Ramachandran (1998) Phantoms in the Brain New York: Quill (HarperColling Publishing). ISBN 0-688-17217-2
• Clare, L., & Halligan, P.W. (Eds.) (2006). Pathologies of Awareness: Bridging the Gap between Theory and Practice. Neuropsychological Rehabilitation.
• Amador, X.F., David, A.S. (2004) Insight and Psychosis: Awareness of Illness in Schizophrenia and Related Disorders (2nd ed). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0198525680
• Amador, Xavier F. et al., Assessment of Insight in Psychosis, 150 Am. J. Psychiatry 873 (1993)
• Amador, Xavier et al., Awareness of Illness in Schizophrenia, 17 Schizophrenia Bull., 113 (1991)
• Amador, Xavier, I Am Not Sick I Don’t Need Help (2000)
• Ghaemi, S. Nassir et al., Insight and Psychiatric Disorders: a Review of the Literature, With a Focus on its Clinical Relevance for Bipolar Disorder, 27 Psychiatric Annals 782 (1997)
• Lysaker, Paul, et al., Insight and Psychosocial Treatment Compliance in Schizophrenia, 57 Psychiatry 311 (Nov. 1994)
• McEvoy, Joseph P., et al., Why Must Some Schizophrenic Patients be Involuntarily Committed? The Role of Insight, 30 Comprehensive Psychiatry, 13 (1989)
• McEvoy, Joseph, The Relationship Between Insight in Psychosis and Compliance With Medications, in Insight & Psychosis 299 (Xavier F. Amador & Anthony S. David eds. 1998)
• McGlynn, Susan & Schacter, Daniel L., The Neuropsychology of Insight: Impaired Awareness of Deficits in a Psychiatric Context, 27 Psychiatric Annals 806 (1997)
• Schwartz, Robert C., The Relationship Between Insight, Illness, and Treatment Outcome in Schizophrenia, Psychiatric Q., Spring 1998
• Williams, Olajide, MD, Stroke Diaries, A Guide for Survivors and their Families. Oxford University Press. 2010