Glossary of Psychiatric
Terms
taken from:
A
Affect - pattern of observable
behaviours which is the expression of a subjectively experienced feeling state
(emotion) and is variable over time in response to changing emotional states
Agnostic
alexia -
words can be seen but not read
Agoraphobia - literally a fear of the
market place. Generally high levels of anxiety and phobic symptoms. May include
a fear of crowds, open and closed spaces and traveling by public transport
Alexithymia - difficulty in being
aware of or describing one's emotions
Ambitendency - series or tentative,
incomplete movements carried out when a voluntary action is anticipated.
Ambivalence - simultaneous presence
of opposing impulses towards the same thing
Amnesia - inability to recall past
experiences
Amok - seen in South-East
Asia. Outburst of aggressive behaviour in which the patient runs 'amok' during
a depressive episode
Anhedonia - inability to feel
enjoyment
Anosognosia - lack of awareness of a
disease
Automatism - act over which a person
has no control e.g. sleepwalking
Autoscopy - phantom mirror image -
hallucination in which one sees and recognizes oneself
Autopagnosia - inability to name,
recognize or point on command to parts of the body
B
Blunted affect
-
reduction in emotional expression
C
Capgras'
syndrome
- a person who is familiar to the patieent is believed to have been replaced by
a double
Central
(syntactical) aphasia - difficult in arranging words in their correct sequence
Circumstantiality
- slowed
thinking incorporating unnecessary trivial details. Eventually the goal of the
thought is reached
Clanging - speech in which words
are chosen because of their sounds rather than their meanings. It includes
rhyming and punning
Clouding of
consciousness - the patient is drowsy and does not react completely to stimuli.
there is disturbance of attention, concentration, memory, orientation and
thinking.
Coenestopathic
state -
localized distortion of body awareness
Compulsions or
compulsive rituals - repetitive, stereotyped, seemingly purposeful behaviour which is the
motor component of obsessional thoughts e.g. checking and cleaning rituals
Concrete
thinking
- lack of abstract thinking, normal in childhood, and occurring in adults with organic
brain disease and schizophrenia
Confabulation - gaps in memory are
unconsciously filled with false memories
Cotard's
syndrome
- nihilistic delusional disorder in whiich, for example, patients believe that
their money, friends or body parts do not exist
Counter
transference
- therapist's emotions and attitudes toowards the patient
Culture -
bound syndromes - specific psychiatric disorders occurring in non-Western
populations
D
Déjà vu - illusion or recognition
of a situation
Déjà pensé - illusion of recognition
of a new thought
Delirium - disorder of
consciousness in which the patient is bewildered, disoriented and restless.
There may be associated fear and hallucinations
Delusions of
infidelity -
(pathological jealousy, delusional jealousy, Othello's syndrome) delusional
belief that one's spouse or lover is being unfaithful.
Delusions of
reference
- the behaviour of others or objects annd event (e.g. television broadcasts)
believed to refer to oneself in particular. When similar thoughts are held with
less than delusional intensity they are called ideas of reference.
Delusion - false personal belief
based on incorrect inference about external reality and firmly held despite
evidence to the contrary. Not explicable on the grounds of the patients
cultural or social background.
Delusion
(illusion) of doubles ( l'illusion de soises) - delusional belief that a
person known to an individual has been replaced by a double. It is seen in
Capgras' syndrome.
Delusional
perception
- new and delusional significance is atttached to a familiar real
perception without any logical reason.
Dementia - global organic
impairment of intellectual functioning without impairment of consciousness.
Denial - defense mechanism in
which the subject acts as if consciously unaware of a wish or reality.
Depersonalization - feeling that one is
unaltered or not real in some way.
Depressive
retardation
- lesser form of psychomotor retardatioon which occurs in depression.
Derealization - one's surrounding do
not seem real.
Displacement - defense mechanism in
which thoughts an feelings about one person or object are transferred onto
another.
Dissociative
disorder
- disorder in which there is a disturbaance in the normal integration or
awareness of identity, consciousness, memory and control of body movements.
Distractibility
-
attention is frequently drawn to irrelevant external stimuli.
DSM-IV - fourth edition of the
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, published by the
American Psychiatric Association, Washington DC (1994). Multiaxial
classification with 5 axes.
Dysarthria - difficulty articulating
speech.
Dysphoria - Unpleasant mood.
E
Echolalia - automatic imitation of
another's speech.
Ecstasy - feeling of intense
rapture.
Ego - part of the mental
apparatus that is present at the interface of the perceptual and internal
demand systems. It controls voluntary thoughts and actions, and, at an
unconscious level, defense mechanisms.
Egomania - pathological
preoccupation with oneself.
Eidetic image - vivid and detailed
reproduction of a previous perception e.g. a photographic memory.
Elevated mood - mood more cheerful than
normal. It is not necessarily pathological.
Erotomania (de Clérambault's
syndrome) - patient holds the delusional belief that someone else, usually of a
higher social or professional status, is in love with them.
Euphoric mood - exaggerated feeling of
well-being. It is pathological.
Expansive mood - feelings are expressed
without restraint, and one's self-importance may be over-rated.
Expressive
(motor) aphasia - difficulty in expressing thoughts in words whilst comprehension
remains.
Extracampine
hallucination - hallucination occurring outside one's sensory field.
F
Flat affect - almost no emotional expression
at all -the patient typically has an immobile face and monotonous voice.
Flight of
ideas -
speech consists of a stream of accelerated thoughts with abrupt changes from
topic to topic and no central direction. the connections between the thoughts may
be based on chance relationships, verbal associations (e.g. alliteration and
assonance), clang associations and distracting stimuli.
Formication - somatic hallucination
in which insects are felt to be crawling under one's skin.
Free
association
- articulation, without censorship, alll of the thoughts that come to mind.
Free-floating
anxiety -
pervasive and unfocused anxiety.
Fregoli's
syndrome
- patient believes that a familiar persson, who is often believed to be the
person's persecutor, has taken on different appearances.
Freudian slips
(parapraxes) - unconscious thoughts slipping through when one is off guard.
Fugue - the individual wanders
away from usual surroundings and has loss of memory.
Functional
hallucination - the stimulus causing the hallucination is heard in addition to the
hallucination. e.g. someone hears
G
Global aphasia - both receptive and
expressive aphasia present at the same time.
H
Hallucination - false sensory perception
in the absence of a real external stimulus. It is perceived as being located in
objective space and as having the same realistic qualities as normal
perceptions. It is not subject to conscious manipulation and only indicates a
psychotic disturbance when there is also impaired reality testing.
Hallucinosis - hallucination (usually
auditory ) occurring in clear consciousness. e.g in alcoholism.
Hemisomatognosis
(hemidepersonalization) - limb is felt to be missing.
Hyperacussis - increased sensitivity to
sounds.
Hyperaesthesia - sensory distortion in
which sensations appear increased.
Hyperkinesis - overactivity, distractibility,
excitability and impulsivity e.g in children.
Hypnagogic hallucination -
hallucination occurring whilst falling asleep. Occurs in normal people.
Hypoaesthesia - sensory distortion in
which sensations appear decreased.
Hypochondriasis - preoccupation, not
based on a real organic pathology, with a fear of having a serious physical
illness. Physical sensations are unrealistically interpreted as being abnormal.
I
ICD-10 - tenth revision of the
International Classification of Diseases published by the World Health
Organization, Geneva (1992)
Id - unconscious part of the
mental apparatus which is partly made up of inherited instincts and partly by
acquired, but repressed components.
Ideas of
reference
- see under delusion of reference.
Illusion - false perception of a
real external stimulus.
Inappropriate
affect -
affect that is inappropriate to the circumstances
Induced
psychosis/ folie
à deux - delusional disorder shared by two or more people who are closely
related emotionally. One has a real psychosis whilst symptoms are induced in
the other. Separation results in symptomatic improvement in the one who is not
psychotic.
Introjection
and identification - ego defence mechanisms in which the attitudes and behaviour of
another are internalised to help the person to cope with separation
Isolation - a defense mechanism in
which certain thoughts are isolated from others
J
Jamais vu - illusion of failure to
recognise a familiar situation
Jargon aphasia - incoherent,
meaningless, neologistic speech
K
Klüver Bucy
Syndrome
- Placidity, hyperorality, hypersexualiity, hyperphagia - resulting from
bilateral destruction of the amygdaloid bodies of the limbic system
Knight's Move
thinking
- odd, tangential associations between ideas leading to disruptions in the
smooth continuity of speech
L
Labile affect - affect repeatedly and
rapidly shifts from one extreme to another e.g. from despair to elation
Learning
disability (
mental retardation ) - IQ 70 or less
Logoclonia - last syllable of the
word is repeated
Logorrhoea ( volubility ) - fluent
and rambling speech using many words
M
Macropsia - objects appear larger
or nearer
Made actions ( made acts ) -
delusional belief that one's free will has been removed and an external agency
is controlling one's actions
Made feelings - delusional belief that
one's free will has been removed and an external agency is controlling one's
feelings
Mens rea - guilty state of mind at
the time of a criminal act
Mental
apparatus
- id, ego and superego in psychodynamicc terms
Micropsia - objects appear smaller
or farther away
Mild mental
retardation
- IQ of 50-70 inclusive
Moderate
mental retardation - IQ of 35-49 inclusive
Monomania - pathological
preoccupation with a single object
Mood - predominant feeling
state - in the extreme will effect the perception of external events
Mood congruent
delusion -
content of a delusion is appropriate to the patient's mood
Mutism - total loss of speech
N
Negativism - motiveless resistance
to commands and attempts to be moved
Neologism - newly made up word or an
everyday word used in an idiosyncratic way
Neurosis - a disorder in which the
individual has insight into the illness and they can distinguish between
subjective experience and external reality
Nihilistic
delusion
- delusional belief that oneself, or otthers or the world does not exist or is
about to cease to exist
Nominal
aphasia -
difficulty in naming objects
O
Obsessions - repetitive, seemingly
irrational thoughts that come to mind despite resitance
Overvalued
idea - a
sustained preoccupation that is unreasonable given the evidence available, that
is held strongly but not to a delusional degree
P
Pallilalia - word or phrase is
repeated
Panic attacks - acute, episodic attacks
of extreme anxiety - may occur with or without physiological symptoms
Pareidolia -vivid imagery that
occurs whilst looking at a poorly structured background
Paramnesia - distorted recall leading
to falsification of memory e.g. confabulation, déjà vu, déjà pensé,
jamais vu, retrospective falsification
Passing by the
point (vorbeigehen) answers to questions, though obviously wrong indicate that
the person has understood the question. e.g how many legs has a table? -
3. Occurs in Ganser's Syndrome - described in prisoners awaiting trial
Passivity
phenomena
-delusional belief that an external ageency is controlling the aspects of
oneself that are usually under one's own control - e.g. though alienation, made
feelings, made impulses, made actions and somatic passivity
Perseveration (of speech and movement) -
mental operations carry on past the point that they serve a function e.g. what
day is it? Monday, what time is it? Monday. Seen in organic disorders
Personality
disorders -
deeply ingrained and pervasive patterns of behaviour that are seen in a
wide range of situations and cause distress to oneself or others
Phobia - persistent irrational
fear of an activity or object. This leads to avoidance. The fear is out of
proportion of the reality of the threat
Posturing - inappropriate or
bizarre bodily posture adopted continuously over a sustained period
Poverty of
speech -
reduced speech - tends to occur in severe depressive states
Pressure of
speech -
increased quantity and rate of speech - tends to occur in manic states
Primary
delusion
- delusion arriving fully formed withouut any discernable connection with
previous events
Profound
mental retardation - IQ of less than 20
Projection - defense mechanism in
which repressed thoughts and wishes are attributed to other people or objects
Prosopagnosia - inability to recognise
faces
Pseudodementia - depressive states in
the elderly may present as a dementia
Pseudohallucination - form of imagery arising
in the subjective inner space and lack the substantiality usual of normal perceptions.
Psychosis - disorder in which the
individual does not have insight and constructs a false environment out of
inner experiences
Pure word
deafness
- words that are heard cannot be compreehended
R
Rationalization -defense mechanism in
which an attempt is made to explain in a logical way affects, ideas or wishes
that may otherwise be unpalatable or unacceptable
Reaction
formation
- defense mechanism whereby the externaal action or belief is diametrically
opposed to the internal belief
Receptive
aphasia
(sensory) - difficulty in comprehending word meanings or received speech or
language
Reduplication
phenomena
- part or all of the body is felt to bee reduplicated
Reflex
hallucination - stimulus in one sensory field leads to a hallucination in another
sensory field
Regression - defense mechanism in
which there is a return to an earlier stage of development
Repression - defense mechanism in
which unacceptable affects, ideas or wishes are pushed away so that they remain
in the unconscious
Retrospective
falsification - false details are added to the recollection of an otherwise real
memory
S
Severe mental
retardation
- IQ of 20-34 inclusive
Simple phobia - fear of discrete
objects or situations
Simultanagnosia - inability to globally
appreciate pictures
Social phobia - fear of interactions in
public settings
Somatic
passivity
- delusional belief that one is a passiive recipient of bodily sensations from
an external agency
Somnambulism - sleep walking
Somnolence - state of drowsiness
from which one can be woken
Stammering - flow of speech is
broken by pauses and the repetition of parts of words
Stereotypy - repeated, regular fixed
pattern of movement or speech that is goal directed
Sublimation - defense mechanism
allowing unconscious wishes to be satisfied by socially acceptable means
Superego - derivative of the ego
which hold ethical and moralistic values
Synaesthesia - stimulus in one sensory
field leads to a hallucination in another sensory field
Systematized
T
Tactile
(haptic) hallucination -superficial somatic hallucination
Talking past
the point (vorbeirden) - point of what is being said is never quite reached
Thought
blocking
- sudden interruption in the train of tthought, leaving a 'blank'
Thought broadcasting
-
delusional belief that one's thoughts are being 'read' by others as if they
were being broadcast
Thought
insertion
- delusional belief that thoughts are bbeing inserted into one's mind by an
external agency
Thought
withdrawal -
delusional belief that thoughts are being removed
Tics - repeated, irregular
movements involving a muscle group
Trailing
phenomenon -
moving objects are seen as a series of discrete discontinuous images. It is
associated with hallucinogens
Transference - unconscious process in
which emotions and attitudes experienced in childhood are transferred to the
therapist
U
Undoing (what
has been done) - defense mechanism in which previous thoughts or actions are made not
to have
V
Visceral
hallucinations - somatic hallucinations of deep sensations
Visual
asymbolia
- words can be transcribed but not readd
W
Waxy
flexibility (cerea flexibilitas) a patient's movements have the feeling of a plastic
resistance, as if the person was made of wax. Occurs in catatonic
schizophrenia. The persons limbs can be placed in fixed positions
Word
salad
(schizophasia or speech confusion) - the speech is an incoherent and
incomprehensible mix of words and phrases. Occurs in schizophrenia