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Superglossary - Psychiatry Category: Sciences > Psychiatry Date & country: 15/12/2013, USA Words: 467

Neurotransmitter
(nur-o-trans-mit-er) Molecules that carry chemical messages between nerve cells. Neurotransmitters a

Nihilistic Delusion
delusional belief that oneself, or others or the world does not exist or is about to cease to exist

Nominal Aphasia
difficulty in naming objects

Nystagmus
Involuntary rhythmic movements of the eyes that consist of small-amplitude~ rapid tremors in one dir

Object Relations
The emotional bonds between one person and another, as contrasted with interest in and love for the

Obsession
Recurrent and persistent thought, impulse, or image experienced as intrusive and distressing. Recogn

Oedipus Complex
Attachment of the child to the parent of the opposite sex, accompanied by envious and aggressive fee

Olfactory Hallucination
A hallucination involving the perception of odor, such as of burning rubber or decaying fish.

Ontogenetic
Pertaining to the development of the individual.

Operant Conditioning
A process by which the results of the persons behavior determine whether the behavior is more or les

Oral Stage
The earliest of the stages of infantile psychosexual development, lasting from birth to 12 months or

Orientation
Awareness of ones self in relation to time, place, and person.

Orthostatic-Postural Hypotension
Sometimes an early side effect when starting certain antipsychotics, characterised by low blood pres

Overcompensation
A conscious or unconscious process in which a real or imagined physical or psychological deficit gen

Overdetermination
The concept of multiple unconscious causes of an emotional reaction or symptom.

Overvalued Idea
a sustained preoccupation that is unreasonable given the evidence available, that is held strongly b

Pallilalia
word or phrase is repeated

Panic Attacks
acute, episodic attacks of extreme anxiety

PANSS
Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale

Paramnesia
distorted recall leading to falsification of memory e.g. confabulation, d

Paranoia
(par-a-noy-a) A mental state that includes unreasonable suspicions of people and situations. A perso

Paranoid Ideation
Ideation, of less than delusional proportions, involving suspiciousness or the belief that one is be

Paranoid Type Schizophrenia
Presence of prominent delusions and auditory hallucinations in an individual, where disorganized spe

Parasomnia
Abnormal behavior or physiological events occurring during sleep or sleep-wake transitions.

Pareidolia
vivid imagery that occurs whilst looking at a poorly structured background

Parkinsonism
(par-kin-son-izm) A group of symptoms including loss of movement, a lack of facial expression, stiff

Parkinsons Disease
A disease mostly affecting middle-aged and elderly people characterized by tremors and rigid, slow m

Passivity Phenomena
delusional belief that an external agency is controlling the aspects of oneself that are usually und

Pavolovian Conditioning
Elicitation of a response by a stimulus that normally does not elicit that response. The response is

Persecutory Delusion
A delusion in which the central theme is that one (or someone to whom one is close) is being attacke

Perseveration
mental operations carry on past the point that they serve a function e.g. what day is it? Monday, wh

Personality
Enduring patterns of perceiving, relating to, and thinking about the environment and oneself. Person

Personality Disorder
A deeply ingrained and maladjusted pattern of behavior that persists for many years. It is usually w

Phallic Stage
The period, from about 21/2 to 6 years, during which sexual interest, curiosity, and pleasurable exp

Phobia
persistent irrational fear of an activity or object. This leads to avoidance. The fear is out of pro

Piblokto
A culture specific syndrome of Eskimos involving attacks of screaming, crying, and running naked thr

Positive Symptoms
Reflect an excess or distortion of normal functions. Includes delusions, hallucinations, disorganize

Positron Emission Tomography (PET)
(poz-ih-tron e-mish-en toe-mog-ra-fe) A technique used to evaluate the activity of brain tissues. PE

Postural Hypotension
(pos-cher-al hi-po-ten-shun) Also known as orthostatic hypotension, it is characterized by low blood

Posturing
inappropriate or bizarre bodily posture adopted continuously over a sustained period

Poverty Of Speech
Tends to occur in severe depressive states The inability to start or take part in a conversation, pa

Preconscious
Thoughts that are not in immediate awareness but that can be recalled by conscious effort.

Pregenital
In psychoanalysis, refers to the period of early childhood before the genitals have begun to exert t

Pressured Speech
Speech that is increased in amount, accelerated, and difficult or impossible to interrupt. Usually i

Primary Delusion
delusion arriving fully formed without any discernable connection with previous events

Primary Gain
The relief from emotional conflict and the freedom from anxiety achieved by a defense mechanism. Con

Primary Process
In psychoanalytic theory, the generally unorganized mental activity characteristic of the unconsciou

Prodrome
An early or premonitory sign or symptom of a disorder

Projection
A defense mechanism, operating unconsciously, in which what is emotionally unacceptable in the self

Projective Identification
A term introduced by Melanie Klein to refer to the unconscious process of projection of one or more

Projective Tests
Psychological diagnostic tests in which the test material is unstructured so that any response will

Prolactin
Hormone produced by the pituitary gland in the brain. Stimulates lactation and ovarian function. Exc

Prolactin
A hormone, synthesized and stored in the pituitary gland that stimulates the production of breast mi

Prosopagnosia
Inability to recognize familiar faces that is not explained by defective visual acuity or reduced co

Pseudocyesis
Included in DSM-IV as one of the somatoform disorders. It is characterized by a false belief of bein

Pseudodementia
A syndrome in which dementia is mimicked or caricatured by a functional psychiatric illness. Symptom

Pseudohallucination
form of imagery arising in the subjective inner space and lack the substantiality usual of normal pe

Psychomotor Agitation
Excessive motor activity associated with a feeling of inner tension. When severe, agitation may invo

Psychomotor Retardation
Visible generalized slowing of movements and speech.

Psychosis
Any major mental disorder that involves change of personality and loss of contact with reality. This

Psychotherapy
Therapy involving psychological instead of medical treatment of mental disorders. It can include sup

Psychotropic Medication
Medication that affects thought processes or feeling states and used in the treatment of mental diso

Pure Word Deafness
words that are heard cannot be comprehended

Rationalization
defense mechanism in which an attempt is made to explain in a logical way affects, ideas or wishes t

Reaction Formation
A defense mechanism, operating unconsciously, in which a person adopts affects, ideas, and behaviour

Receptive Aphasia
difficulty in comprehending word meanings or received speech or language

Receptor
A protein molecule that resides on the surface or in the nucleus of a cell. Receptors recognise and

Reciprocal Inhibition
In behavior therapy, the hypothesis that if anxiety-provoking stimuli occur simultaneously with the

Reduplication Phenomena
part or all of the body is felt to be reduplicated

Reflex Hallucination
stimulus in one sensory field leads to a hallucination in another sensory field

Repetition Compulsion
In psychoanalytic theory, the impulse to reenact earlier emotional experiences. Considered by Freud

Repression
defense mechanism in which unacceptable affects, ideas or wishes are pushed away so that they remain

Residual Schizophrenia
Blunted or inappropriate affect, social withdrawal, eccentric behavior, loose associations without p

Respondent Conditioning
Elicitation of a response by a stimulus that normally does not elicit that response. The response is

Retrospective Falsification
false details are added to the recollection of an otherwise real memory

Rigidity
An abnormal increase in the general tenseness of muscles that is not caused by anxiety or exercise.

Rreinforcement
The strengthening of a response by reward or avoidance of punishment. This process is central in ope

SANS
Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms - an assessment tool for the evaluation of drug treatm

SAS
Simpson Angus Scale - an assessment tool designed to measure the symptoms of parkinsonism or extrapy

Schizoaffective Disorder
(skiz-o-a-feck-tiv) A condition that includes symptoms of both schizophrenia and affective (mood) di

Schizoid
(skiz-oyd) Socially isolated, withdrawn, having few friends and social relationships, resembling the

Schizophrenia
(skiz-o-fre-ne-ah) A common type of psychosis characterized by hallucinations and/or delusions, pers

Screen Memory
A consciously tolerable memory that serves as a cover for an associated memory that would be emotion

Secondary Gain
The external gain derived from any illness, such as personal attention and service, monetary gains,

Secondary Process
In psychoanalytic theory, mental activity and thinking characteristic of the ego and influenced by t

Sensory Extinction
Failure to report sensory stimuli from one region if another region is stimulated simultaneously, ev

Separation Anxiety Disorder
A disorder with onset before the age of 18 consisting of inappropriate anxiety concerning separation

Serotonin (Ser-O-To-Nin)
Neurotransmitter that relays impulses between nerve cells (neurons) in the central nervous system. F

Shaping
Reinforcement of responses in the patients repertoire that increasingly approximate sought-after beh

Sick Role
An identity adopted by an individual as a patient that specifies a set of expected behaviors, usuall

Sign
An objective manifestation of a pathological condition. Signs are observed by the examiner rather th

Signal Anxiety
An ego mechanism that results in activation of defensive operations to protect the ego from being ov

Simple Phobia
fear of discrete objects or situations

Simultanagnosia
Inability to comprehend more than one element of a visual scene at the same time or to integrate the

Sleep Terror Disorder
One of the parasomnias, characterized by panic and confusion when abruptly awakening from sleep. Thi

Social Adaptation
The ability to live and express oneself according to societys restrictions and cultural demands.

Social Phobia
fear of interactions in public settings

Somatic Delusion
A delusion whose main content pertains to the appearance or functioning of ones body.

Somatic Hallucination
A hallucination involving the perception of a physical experience localized within the body (such as

Somatic Passivity
delusional belief that one is a passive recipient of bodily sensations from an external agency