Psychiatry definitions

Question 1

Dysthymia

Answer 1

chronic state of low mood, lasting at least 2 years

Question 2

What is affect?

Answer 2

Observable pattern of behaviour that expresses the subjective emotional state of an individual

Question 3

Psychomotor retardation

Answer 3

subject sits abnormally still, or walks slowly, or slow to initiate movement

Question 4

flight of ideas

Answer 4

rapid flow of thoughts
accelerated speech
some form of link between topics

Question 5

Pressure of speech

Answer 5

fast paced speech, difficult to interrupt

Question 6

pseudohallucination

Answer 6

sensory experience real enough to be thought real - but subject aware its fake

Question 7

depersonalisation

Answer 7

change in awareness of self - subject feels not real, detached

Question 8

thought echo

Answer 8

experience their own thoughts as if they were being spoken aloud

Question 9

thought insertion

Answer 9

thoughts which are not their own being inserted into their head

Question 10

thought withdrawal

Answer 10

thoughts being removed by their head by an external agency, against their will

Question 11

thought broadcast

Answer 11

thoughts are being shared with others, often large numbers of people

Question 12

delusions of passivity

Answer 12

thoughts/feelings/actions being controlled by an outside force

Question 13

negative symptoms

Answer 13

feature of schizophrenia - poverty of speech, flat affect, poor motivation, poor attention

Question 14

lability

Answer 14

subject’s affect is rapidly changeable, with marked fluctuation

Question 15

delusion

Answer 15

belief held firmly with unshakable conviction.

cannot be explained by subjects cultural or religious background

Question 16

concrete thinking

Answer 16

inability to understand abstract ideas or concepts

Question 17

clouding of consciousness

Answer 17

step down from normal alertness
deterioration in thinking, attention, perception and memory.
often with drowsiness

Question 18

ideas of reference

Answer 18

innocuous events/coincidences are related to the subject

e.g. the TV/radio is talking about/to me

Question 19

loosening of associations

Answer 19

loss of normal structural thinking
discourse seems muddles and illogical
disorder of thought form

Question 20

neologisms

Answer 20

new words that have no real meaning

Question 21

perseveration

Answer 21

repetition of a particular word, phrase, utterance, gesture.

despite absence of stimulus

Question 22

illusion

Answer 22

false perception of a real stimulus

Question 23

hallucination

Answer 23

perception occurring in the absence of a stimulus

to the subject, is indistinguishable from real perception

Question 24

anhedonia

Answer 24

inability to derive pleasure from everyday events or objects