Definitions

Question 1

Dysthymia

Answer 1

A chronic state of low mood, usually with an insidious onset and lasting at least 2 years

Question 2

Euthymia

Answer 2

normal/stable mood

Question 3

Mood

Answer 3

A word to describe sustained and pervasive emotion

Question 4

Affect

Answer 4

Short lived observable pattern of behavior that expresses the subjective emotional state of an individual. It is subject to variation over brief periods of time

Question 5

Alexthymia

Answer 5

an inability to express one’s emotions

Question 6

Anhedonia

Answer 6

A total inability to enjoy anything in life or get the accustomed satisfaction from everyday events or objects. ‘A loss of the ability to experience pleasure’.

Question 7

Psychomotor retardation

Answer 7

the subject sits abnormally still or walk abnormally slowly or takes a long time to initiate movement.

Question 8

Flight of ideas

Answer 8

thoughts or ideas flash through the mind, with each suggesting other ideas/thoughts at a fast rate. Words are linked solely through their meaning or rhyme (e.g. white black coffin) so that speech loses its aim and the subject wanders from the original topic of discussion.

Question 9

Pressure of speech

Answer 9

the subject talks too much. There seems to be undue pressure to get words out. They speak too fast, his voice is too loud and there are unnecessary words added.

Question 10

Depersonalisation

Answer 10

A peculiar change in the awareness of self, in which the individual feels as though he is unreal. Feel as though they are acting a part rather than being spontaneous and natural, that they are a sham or a shadow of a real person. The subject will retain a measure of understanding and knows that what they are experiencing is abnormal.

Question 11

Derealisation

Answer 11

The subject experiences their surroundings as unreal – feels like a stage set with actors rather than real people going about their lives. Everything seems colourless, artificial and dead. The subject retains a measure of understanding and knows the condition is abnormal.

Question 12

Illusion

Answer 12

A false perception of a stimulus. 3 types:

1. Affect – determined by mood (e.g. misinterpret someone flagging down a bus, think they are swearing at them because of their low mood)
2. Completion – an incomplete object is perceived as complete due to inattention
3. Pareidolia – perceives formed objects from ambiguous stimuli e.g. a face in a cloud

Question 13

Pseudo-hallucination

Answer 13

A perceptual experience which is figurative, not concretely real and occurs in the inner subjective space, not in external objective space. It has the quality of an idea.

Question 14

Hallucination

Answer 14

A perception that occurs in the absence of a stimulus.

Question 15

Thought echo

Answer 15

The subject experiences his own thoughts as repeated or echoed with very little interval between the thought and echo.

Question 16

Thought insertion

Answer 16

Subject experiences thoughts which aren’t his own intruding into his own mind. Typically, = alien thoughts have been inserted from the outside by means of radar telepathy or some other means.

Question 17

Thought withdrawal

Answer 17

The subject says that his thoughts have been removed by an external agency so that he has no thoughts (can often describe the feeling of thoughts leaving their head).

Question 18

Thought broadcast

Answer 18

The subject thinks that their thoughts are being shared with other, often large numbers of people. Often claiming this is done through telepathy, radio or television.

Question 19

Delusions of control/passivity

Answer 19

Subject experiences his will as replaced by that of some other force or agency.

Question 20

Delusional perception

Answer 20

A type of primary delusion, this is present when the patient receives a normal perception which is then interpreted with delusional meaning and has immense personal meaning e.g. on seeing a traffic light change from red to green; a man declared he was the king of mars.

Question 21

Negative symptoms

Answer 21

Describes a cluster of symptoms that often occur together in chronic schizophrenia e.g. poverty of speech, flat affect, poor motivation and attention.

Question 22

Clouding of consciousness

Answer 22

this represents a step down from normal alertness. There is deterioration in thinking, attention, perception and memory and usually drowsiness and reduced awareness of environment

Question 23

Lability

Answer 23

Mood fluctuating without an obvious cause

Question 24

Delusion

Answer 24

a fixed firmly held belief that is held with unshakable conviction despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary and cannot be explained by the subject’s cultural or religious beliefs.

Question 25

Nihilistic delusions

Answer 25

Delusion of extreme negativity – no longer existing, about to die or even being dead, about to experience a terrible doom.

Question 26

Grandiose delusions

Answer 26

Delusions of being of special status or significance – have special powers or attributes or special mission/purpose

Question 27

Aphasia

Answer 27

No speech, inability to produce words orally

Question 28

Concrete thinking

Answer 28

Inability to understand abstract ideas or concepts, literalness of understanding or expression – don’t understand metaphors

Question 29

2nd person auditory hallucinations

Answer 29

Voices talking to the subject

Question 30

3rd person auditory hallucinations

Answer 30

voices talking about the subject

Question 31

Ideas of reference

Answer 31

A belief that events or occurrences are directly directed or related to the patient – subject always feels noticed (on buses, restaurants, library etc.) and they observe things about them they do not want to be seen. They realise this arises from within themselves but cannot avoid the feeling.

Question 32

Loosening of association

Answer 32

Thoughts that move one to another with the loss of normal structures of thought, appearing illogical or muddled.

Question 33

Neologisms

Answer 33

Made-up words

Question 34

Perserveration

Answer 34

Persistent repetition of thoughts or ideas – response to first stimulus given inappropriately e.g. says ‘I’m well’ to every question after being asked ‘how are you?’

Question 35

Avolition

Answer 35

Lack of motivation

Question 36

Alogia

Answer 36

Poverty of speech

Question 37

Circumstantiality

Answer 37

Inability to give answer without including unnecessary detail. Will return to original topic (unlike tangentiality)

Question 38

Tangentiality

Answer 38

Failing to answer question because wander off topic