Disturbances in Thought Process and Content Flashcards
A client gives out excessive unnecessary details, but eventually gets to the point.
Example:
Nurse: “How have you been A client sleeping lately?”
Client: “Oh, I go to bed, so I can get plenty of rest. I like to listen to music or
read books before bed. Right now I am reading a good mystery. Maybe I will
write a mystery someday. But is it isn’t helping reading, reading I mean. I have been getting only 2 or 3 hours of sleep at night.”
Circumstantial Thinking
A client gives out excessive unnecessary details and never gets to the point.
Example:
Nurse: “How have you been A client sleeping lately?”
Client: “Oh, I go to bed, so I can get plenty of rest. I like to listen to music or
read books before bed. Right now I am reading a good mystery. Maybe I will
write a mystery someday. But sometimes I also like drama or non-fiction.”
Tangential Thinking
It is a combination of jumbled words
and phrase that are disconnected or
incoherent and make no sense to the
listener.
Example:
“Corn, potatoes, jump up, play games, grass, cupboard.”
Word Salad
Stereotyped repetition of words or phase that may or not have meaning to the listener.
Example: “I want to go home, go home, go home.”
Verbigeration
Persistent adherence to a single idea or
topic and verbal repetition of a sentence, phrase, or word, even when another person attempts to change the topic.
Example:
Nurse: “How have you been sleeping lately?”
Client: “I think people have been following me.”
Nurse: ‘Where do you live?”
Client: “At my place people have been following.
Nurse: ‘What do you like to do in your free time?”
Client: “Nothing because people are following me.”
Perseveration
Client’s imitation or repetition of what
the nurse says.
Example:
Nurse: Can you tell me how you’re feeling?
Client: Can you tell me how you’re feeling?
Echolalia
Excessive amount and rate of speech
composed of fragmented or unrelated ideas.
Example:
“The sun is
shining. Where is my sun? I love Lucy. Let us play ball.”
Flight of Ideas
Disorganized thinking that jumps from one idea to another with little or no evident relation between the thoughts
Example:
Nurse: “Do you have enough money to buy that candy bar?”
Client: “I have a real yen for chocolate. The Japanese have all the yen and have taken all of our money and mark edit. You know, you have to be careful
of the Marxists because they are friends with the Swiss and they have all the cheese and all the watches and that means they have taken all the time. The worst thing about Swiss cheese is all the holes. People have to be careful about falling into holes.”
Looseness of Association
False belief which is inconsistent with
one’s knowledge and culture.
Example:
The client may claim to be engaged to a famous movie star or related to some public figure such as claiming to be the daughter of the President of the
Philippines.
Delusion
False sensory perceptions, or
perceptual experiences that do not really exist.
Example:
The client may claim to be speaking with an imaginary person commanding
him to do something bad to another person.
Hallucination
Words invented by the client.
Example:
“I’m afraid of grittiz. If there are any grittiz here, I will have to leave. Are you a
grittiz?”
Neologisms
