Psychiatry: Terminology Flashcards
Define a concrete concept
Real objects or situations (e.g. tremor)
Define a defined concept
Classes of concepts (e.g. delusions)
Define a concept system
Sets of related concepts (e.g. schizophrenia)
Define an illusion
A miss-interpretation of a physical stimulus
Define a hallucination
The perception of a stimulus that is not there (auditory, visual, olfactory)
Name four types of hallucination
- Hypnopompic/hypnogogic
- Auditory
- Reflex
- Extracampine
Define a hypnopompic hallucination
Hallucinations as you fall asleep/wake up
Define an auditory hallucination
Can be 2nd or 3rd person
2nd - “You are going to die” “You’re a terrible person”
3rd - Running commentary, voices discussing or commenting
Define a reflex hallucination
Have a reflex to a stimulus, e.g. when you write, you can hear the pen pressing on your heart
Define an extracampine hallucination
A hallucination outside the realms of what could be feasible. E.g. I can hear people from Australia talking to me or I can smell the pizza from pizza hut in London
Define an over-valued idea
A belief or concept that is out of keeping with reality, but isn’t held with firm belief (could be shifted with evidence)
Define a delusion
A belief or concept (usually knowledge-based) that is firmly believed, with no persuading otherwise
Define a persecutory delusion
Something is going to happen to them that will harm them due to an external agency
Define a grandiose delusion
The belief that they are invinsible, e.g. can cure cancer
Define a self-referential delusion
Take something incidental and perceiving it (hearing the radio/seeing something on TV and thinking it means something to you)
E.g. Because that guy is wearing a bow tie it means that he loves me
Define a nihilistic delusion
Believe that they have died or that their body is not functioning
Define a misidentification delusion
- Capgras: someone is replaced by an imposter
- Fregoli: various people are the same people
- Subjective doubles: doppelganger
Define a religious delusion
Refers to the content of the delusion
Define a delusional perception
Somebody has an actual perception and forms a delusional meaning
E.g. the traffic light turned red and I knew from that moment on that people were watching me
Define thought insertion
An external agency putting thoughts into your head (e.g. MI5 keep putting thoughts into my head)
Thought withdrawal
Belief that someone is extracting their thoughts
Thought broadcast
Belief that their thoughts are being shared with EVERYBODY
Thought echo
Thoughts are being echoed back to you, sometimes an internal monologue
Thought block
Trains of thoughts are being blocked - sudden stopping of conversation that can not be brought back
Concrete thinking
Take descriptions very literally, e.g. won’t understand metaphors
Loosening of association
AKA when they speak you can understand the words, but the sentences don’t make sense. Lost connectivity with the thoughts that they have.
Circumstantiality
Ask somebody a question, e.g. how old was your father when he died?
The patient will start talking about something completely irrelevant and go around until they get to the answer
See it in personality disorders, Alzheimer’s
Perseveration
The initial answer is correct and makes sense, but the answer is repeated to other questions and no longer makes sense
E.g. When did you go on holiday? Two weeks. Where did you go? Two weeks
Confabulation
Memory formation problems (can be from alcohol misuse)
E.g. can form short (untrue) memories to fill in gaps in memory and convinced they are real
Somatic passivity
Physical sensation but cause is external (MI5 is making my arm itch)
Made acts, feelings and drives
A reason for why something is happening, caused by an external agent (MI5 are making me walking back and forth/making me feel sad/making me want to do something)
Catatonia
Remains speechless or motionless
Flights of ideas
Part of pressure of speech, jumping between connected ideas very rapidly
Anhedonia
Lack of pleasure in things you used to find enjoyable
Incongruity of affect
‘My dog died and I’m really upset’ but they are smiling/laughing/joking
Blunting of affect
No changes in facial expression
Conversion and Belle indifference
- Conversion: converted psychological trauma into physical trauma
- Belle indifference: Unphased by conversion disorder
Depersonalisation
Still doing physical actions but things are happening automatically without thought
Derealisation
Wolrd is described as being unreal (e.g. everything feels like it is made of cardboard - flat and dimensional)
Dissocation
E.g. in trauma
The person removes consciousness from the situation
Dissociation
E.g. in trauma
The person removes consciousness from the situation
Mannerism
E.g. salute at someone every time they walk past
Stereotyped behaviour
Non-goal directed movements, e.g. shaking of limb or leg. Movement without a purpose.
Obsession
Thought component. E.g. keep thinking about leaving the gas on. Recognise as own thought.
Compulsion
Action component. E.g. repeated hand-washing
Akathisia
Common side effects of anti-psychotics. Urge to move and can’t keep still
Akathisia
Common side effects of anti-psychotics. Urge to move and can’t keep still
Pseudo-hallucination
A hallucination that is recognised by the patient as unreal
Neologism
New made-up words
Interpolation
Insertion of other ideas of a different nature into a sentence talking about something else
Posturing
Behaviour intended to impress/mislead
Waxy flexibility
Reduced response to stimuli/immobile
What is depersonalisation/derealisation?
- Rare disorder
- Characterised by persistent episodes of a distressing feeling of unreality and detachment
- May be in relation to the outside world (realisation) or persons own body/thoughts/feelings/behaviour (personalisation)
- Dissociative disorder or anxiety/stress-related disorder
- Manage with CBT
Cotard delusion
The belief that some body parts are dead/dying/missing
Othello delusion
The delusion of the infidelity of a spouse or partner
Capgras delusion
A delusion that a friend, spouse, parent, or another close family member (or pet) has been replaced by an identical impostor
Fregoli delusion
A delusional belief that different people are in fact a single person who changes appearance or is in disguise
Knight’s move
Leaping between ideas
Different from flight of ideas as no links between topics
Word salad
Disorganised speech
Sentences don’t make sense
Munchausens
Purposefully causing symptoms, e.g. diabetic taking too much insulin to cause hypos
Malingering
Faking symptoms for personal gain (usually financial)
Charles Bonnet syndrome
- Visual hallucinations associated with an eye disease (though no hereditary eye disease)
- Most are face, children and wild animals
- Often occurs in older patients
Echopraxia
A tic characterized by the involuntary repetition of another person’s behaviour or movements
Could be body language, imitating a walk, or copying a person fidgeting
Echolalia
The involuntary repetition of another person’s speech
Tangentiality
Wandering from a topic without returning to it
Clang associations
Ideas are related to each other by the fact they sound similar or rhyme
