Institutional syndrome

In clinical and abnormal psychology, institutionalization or institutional syndrome refers to deficits or disabilities in social and life skills, which develop after a person has spent a long period living in mental hospitals, prisons or other remote institutions. In other words, individuals in institutions may be deprived (whether unintentionally or not) of independence and of responsibility, to the point that once they return to "outside life" they are often unable to manage many of its demands;^[1][2] it has also been argued that institutionalized individuals become psychologically more prone to mental health problems.^[3]

The term institutionalization can also be used to describe the process of committing an individual to a mental hospital or prison, or to describe institutional syndrome; thus the phrase "X is institutionalized" may mean either that X has been placed in an institution or that X is suffering the psychological effects of having been in an institution for an extended period of time.