Psychiatry Flashcards
Define Neuroses
Mild mental illness with no organic cause that involves symptoms of stress but no loss of touch with reality
Define Psychosis
Severe mental disorder in which thoughts and emotions are so impaired that contact with external reality is lost
Define Illusion
Misinterpretation of actual external stimulus e.g. Hearing wind and thinking it’s a baby crying
Define Hallucination
Internal perception without corresponding external stimulus
Define pseudohallucination
False perception which is perceived as occurring as part of ones internal experience not as part of the external world
Define overvalued idea
Form of abnormal belief, reasonable and understandable but unreasonably dominates the persons life
Define thought echo
Auditory hallucination in which the content is the patients current thoughts
Define though insertion
Delusional belief that thoughts are being placed into the patients head
Define thought withdrawal
Delusional belief that thoughts are being taken from the patients head
Define thought block
Sudden break in the chain of though - may be explained by thought withdrawal
Define thought broadcast
Delusional belief that ones thoughts are readily accessible to others
Define concrete thinking
Loss of ability to understand metaphorical ideas and abstract concepts - literal thinking - seen in schizophrenia and dementia
Define circumstantiality
Disorder of form of thought where irrelevant details and digressions overwhelm direction of thought process - seen in mania and anankastic PD
Define Confabulation
Describing plausibly false memories for a period where the patient has amnesia - seen in Korsakoffs, dementia and following alcohol palimpsest
Define perseveration
Continuing with a verbal response or action which was initially appropriate but ceases to be so - seen in organic disease and occasionally schizophrenia
Define depersonalisation
Subjective experience which the patient feels unreal
Define psychomotor retardation
Decreased spontaneous movement and slowness in instigating and completing voluntary movements - depressive illness
Define made acts, feelings and drives
Delusional belief that ones free will has been removed and an external source is controlling feelings and actions
Define somatic passivity
Delusional belief that sensations are being imposed upon the body by outside forces
Define conversion
Development of features suggestive of physical illness but which are attributed to psychiatric illness rather than organic pathology
Define Dissociation
Separation of unpleasant emotions or memories from conscious awareness with subsequent disruption to the normal integrated functioning of consciousness and memory
Define mannerism
Bizarre and pointless repetitive movement
Define derailment
Break in chain of association between meaning of thoughts - connection not apparent to patient or examiner
Define obsession
Idea, image or impulse which is recognised as the patients own but is repetitive, intrusive and distressing - can be resisted at the expensive of mounting anxiety, sometimes relieved by associated compulsions
Define compulsion
Behaviour or action which is recognised as unnecessary and purposeless but cannot be resisted - need to perform act in order to avoid adverse event
Define akathisia
Subjective sense of uncomfortable desire to move, relieved by repeated movement, usually the legs. Side effect of neuroleptics
Define clang association
Connection between words is based on sound rather than meaning e.g. Rhyming. Seen in manic flight of ideas
Cotard syndrome
Psychotic depressive illness characterised by triad of depressed mood, nihilistic delusions and hypochondriacal delusions
Couvade syndrome
Conversion symptoms mimicking pregnancy in the partner of a pregnant woman
Define delusion
A fixed unshakeable belief held outside of social and cultural norms despite lack of evidence
Delusion of jealousy
Partner being unfaithful, monosymptomatic = Othello Syndrome
Fregoli Syndrome
Strangers are familiar people
Capgras Syndrome
Delusional belief that familiar people have been replaced by identical strangers
Define Ekbom syndrome
Monosymptomatic delusion of infestation
Define De Clerambault syndrome
Female (usually) believes a higher status individual is in love with them and soften accompanying persecutory delusion that people are conspiring to keep them apart
Define delusions of reference
Belief that external events or stimuli have been arranged in a way such that that have a particular significance, or convey a message, to the individual
