PSYCH Flashcards
DEFINE:
A. Autobiographical memory
B. Episodic memory
C. Procedural memory
D. Semantic memory
E. Topographical memory
Topographical memory - inability to orientate oneself
Autobiographical memory (A) refers to specific events and issues related to oneself such as one’s 60th birthday or the birth of one’s grandchild. ‘ (‘explicit’)
Episodic memory (B) is essentially analagous to autobiographical
memory.
Procedural memory (C) is also known as ‘implicit memory’
and refers to the memory
or knowledge of ‘how to do things’.
Semantic memory (D) refers to our ‘knowledge base’ and is unrelated to specific experiences or events – for example, knowing your nine times table or what the capital of Australia is.
what is perseveration and when is it seen
Perseveration (E) is seen almost exclusively in organic brain disease, for example dementia. It involves giving an appropriate response to a stimulus the first time but then giving the same response (incorrectly) to
a different second stimulus. Note, it is not limited to verbal statements, but may also occur with, for example, motor activity.
what is dejavu and when is it seen
vs jamais vu
Déjà vu (B) refers to the phenomenon whereby the person feels the sense of familiarity of having encountered
an event before, even though it is a new experience for them. It may be a feature of temporal lobe epilepsy but is seen in non-pathological states
and does not always indicate organic disease.
Jamais vu (D) refers
to the sensation that a familiar event or place has never been encountered
before.
4 Types of illusion and what are they
An affect illusion (A) is
one in which a perception is altered depending on the mood state; in this case a frightened woman wakes suddenly and misinterprets a hanging piece of clothing for an attacker.
A completion illusion (B) occurs when there is a lack of attention, and a perception is ‘incorrectly’ interpreted, for example skipping over a misprint in a book because we are tired.
Pareidolic illusions (C) consist of shapes being seen in other objects – the classic example being seeing images such as animals in cloud formations.
In contrast to other illusions, pareidolic illusions become more vivid with concentration.
A tactile hallucination (D) refers to a tactile (‘touch’) sensation in the absence of a stimulus.
4 Types of hallucination and what are they
An extracampine hallucination (A) is one which occurs beyond the usual range of sensation, in this case, beyond the limits of audibility – there is no possibility that the patient would be able to hear anyone speaking
from Finland. These are definite hallucinations as the patient is hearing them, rather than them constituting delusional beliefs.
A functional hallucination (B) occurs when a hallucination is experienced only when an external stimulus is present in the same modality. An example may
be a patient hearing voices only when he hears classical music.
Hypnagogic (C) and
hypnopompic (D) hallucinations refer to those that occur on falling asleep and waking respectively, and may occur in non-pathological states. An example would be the feeling of falling off a cliff when falling asleep.
Reflex hallucinations (E) are similar to functional hallucinations but the stimulus is in a different modality to the hallucination, for example,
a woman with schizophrenia hearing voices every time her child looks at her.
Logoclonia
Logoclonia (D) describes the symptom of repeating the last syllable of a word repeatedly and is often seen in Parkinson’s disease. It has a different
aetiology to stammering or the tics seen in Tourette’s syndrome.
Pharmacological causes of organic depression
Centrally acting antihypertensives (eg, methyldopa).
Lipid-soluble beta-blockers (eg, propranolol).
Benzodiazepines or other central nervous system depressants.
Progesterone contraceptives, especially medroxyprogesterone injection.
STEROIDS
cognition domains
memory, orientation, language, perception, visuospatial
Gerstmann’s syndrome
Gerstmann’s syndrome is a particular
syndrome of parietal lobe injury consisting of four components, namely:
1. ‘Left-right’ disorientation
2. Dyscalculia (inability to perform arithmetical tasks)
3. Finger agnosia (inability to distinguish the fingers on the hand)
4. Agraphia (inability to write).
Anton’s syndrome,
A very odd situation, known as Anton’s syndrome, can occur in bilateral
occipital lobe injury, in which the patient is cortically blind but has no
insight into this and continues to affirm adamantly that they can see.
Sporadic CJD
rapid onset (over weeks or
months) of dementia associated with mood symptoms, spasticity and
blindness.
Neuropsychiatric consequences of Wilson’s disease
include aggression,
reckless behaviour, disinhibition and sometimes self-harming behaviours.
brain tumours involving the wall or floor of the third ventricle symptoms
amnesia and confabulation are very typical of tumours involving the wall or floor of the third ventricle
Structures around this region include the thalamus and hypothalamus, which would also explain the other symptoms of hypersomnia, hyperphagia, pyrexia and polydipsia.
Tumours of the cerebellum (B)
would present with
fewer psychiatric symptoms, although given its location in the posterior fossa, raised intracranial pressure would be common, which may present with dementia-like symptoms, and therefore the memory problems and confabulation may fit
Corpus callosum tumours (C) produce
profound psychiatric
problems and a rapid deterioration of higher functions. This may present
as severe memory problems and an almost catatonic state.
