Definitions in psychiatry

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

Happy, contented mood

Question 3

Affect

Answer 3

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

Question 4

Alexythymia

Answer 4

An inability to verbally express one’s emotions

Question 5

Anhedonia

Answer 5

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

Question 6

Psychomotor retardation

Answer 6

The subject sits abnormally still or walks abnormally slowly or takes a long time to initiate movement

Question 7

Flight of ideas

Answer 7

Images and ideas flash through the mind, each suggesting others at a fast rate [seen in mania]

Question 8

Pressure of speech

Answer 8

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

Question 9

Depersonalisation

Answer 9

A peculiar change in the awareness of self in which the individual feels as if he is unreal

Question 10

Derealisation

Answer 10

The subject experiences his surroundings as unreal. An office or a bus or a street seems like a stage set with actors, rather than real people going about their business. Everything seems colourless, artificial and dead.
The subject retains a measure of understanding and knows the condition is abnormal.

Question 11

Illusion

Answer 11

False perception of a real stimulus. There are 3 types:

1. Affect
2. Completion
3. Pareidolia

Question 12

Pseudohallucination

Answer 12

A perceptual experience which is figurative, not concretely real and occurs in inner subjective space, not an external objective space. It has the quality of an idea.
[people who hear voices that come from inside their head]

Question 13

Hallucination

Answer 13

A perception that occurs in the absence of a stimulus

Question 14

Thought echo

Answer 14

The subject experiences his own thoughts as repeated or echoed with very little interval between the thought and the echo. The repetition may not be a simple echo but subtly or grossly changed in quality.

Question 15

Thought insertion

Answer 15

The subject experiences thoughts which are not his own intruding into his mind. In the most typical case the alien thoughts are said to have been inserted into the mind from outside, by means of radar telepathy or some other means

Question 16

Thought withdrawal

Answer 16

The subject says that thoughts have been removed from his head by an external agency so that he has no thoughts (often able to describe the sensation of the thoughts leaving)

Question 17

Thought broadcast

Answer 17

The subject experiences his thoughts as actually being shared with others, often with large numbers of people. The subjects often claim this sharing is via telepathy, radio and television

Question 18

Delusions of control/passivity

Answer 18

The subject experiences his will as replaced by that of some other force or agency

Question 19

Delusional perception

Answer 19

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

Question 20

Negative symptoms

Answer 20

Describes a cluster of symptoms that generally occur together in schizophrenia
[Generally begin with an A-, taking things away, for example anhedonia]

Question 21

Clouding of consciousness

Answer 21

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

Question 22

Lability

Answer 22

The subjects mood is rapidly changeable

Question 23

Delusion

Answer 23

A fixed, firmly held belief that is held with unshakeable conviction despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary and cannot be explained by the subjects cultural or religious background

Question 24

Nihilistic delusions

Answer 24

delusion of extreme negativity. Patient believes they no longer exist, that they are about to die or that they are already dead. The feeling that one is about to experience a terrible doom

Question 25

Grandiose delusions

Answer 25

Delusions of being of special status

Question 26

Aphagia

Answer 26

no speech, inability to produce words orally

Question 27

Concrete thinking

Answer 27

Inability to understand abstract ideas or concepts, literalness of understanding or expression

Question 28

2nd person auditory hallucinations

Answer 28

“you’re going to die, you’re going to die”

Question 29

3rd person auditory hallucinations

Answer 29

“the voices are talking to each other about me, they say I am evil and mad”

Question 30

Ideas of reference

Answer 30

A belief that events or occurrences are directly directed or related to the patient

Question 31

Loosening of associations

Answer 31

thoughts that move to one another but with loss of normal structures of thought, appearing illogical or muddled
[seen in schizophrenia]

Question 32

Neoligisms

Answer 32

new words that have no real meaning

Question 33

Perseveration

Answer 33

persistent repetition of the same thoughts or ideas