Schizophrenia: Terms

Question 0

Akathisia

Answer 0

Psychomotor restlessness evident as pacing or fidgeting.

Question 1

Acute Dystonia

Answer 1

Acute sustained contraction of muscles, usually of the head and neck.

Question 2

Pseudoparkinsonism

Answer 2

A medication-induced, temporary constellation of sx associated with Parkinson’s disease; tremor, reduced accessory movements, impaired gait, and/or stiffening of muscles.

Question 3

Affect

Answer 3

Outward manifestation of a person’s feelings/emotions; for schizophrenia, affect is usually flat, blunted, inappropriate, or bizarre.

Question 4

Associative Looseness

Answer 4

Disorganized thinking; manifested as jumbled and illogical speech and impaired reasoning.

Question 5

Autism

Answer 5

Thinking is not bound to reality but reflects the private perceptual world of the individual (i.e. delusions, hallucinations, neologisms).

Question 6

Ambivalence

Answer 6

Simultaneously holding two opposing emotions, attitudes, ideas, or wishes toward the same person, situation, or object.

Question 7

Positive Sx

Answer 7

The presence of something that is not normally present (i.e. hallucination, delusions, bizarre behavior, paranoia).

Question 8

Negative Sx

Answer 8

The absence of something that should be present but is not (i.e. apathy, lack of motivation, anhedonia, poor thought processes).

Question 9

Cognitive Sx

Answer 9

Abnormalities in how a person thinks.

Question 10

Affective Sx

Answer 10

Sx involving emotions and their expression.

Question 11

Anosognosia

Answer 11

Lack of insight to the illness; caused by the illness itself

Question 12

Delusions

Answer 12

False, fixed beliefs.

Question 13

Neologisms

Answer 13

Made-up words or idiosyncratic uses of existing words that have meaning for the patient but a different or nonexistent meaning to others.

Question 14

Echolalia

Answer 14

Pathological repeating of another’s words.

Question 15

Echopraxia

Answer 15

Mimicking of movements of another.

Question 16

Clang Association

Answer 16

Choice of words based on their sound rather than their meaning, often rhyming and sometimes having a similar beginning sound.

Question 17

Word Salad

Answer 17

A jumble of words that is meaningless to the listener.

Question 18

Depersonalization

Answer 18

A nonspecific feeling that a person has lost his or her identity and that the self is different or unreal (i.e. seeing fingers as snakes or arms as rotting wood).

Question 19

Derealization

Answer 19

A false perception that the environment has changed (i.e. everything seems bigger or smaller).

Question 20

Hallucinations

Answer 20

Perceiving a sensory experience for which no external stimulus exists; may be auditory, visual, olfactory, gustatory, or tactile.

Question 21

Illusions

Answer 21

Misperceptions or misinterpretations of a real experience (i.e. seeing a coat on a rack as a bear that is about to attack).

Question 22

Command Hallucinations

Answer 22

Voices that direct the person to take an action.

Question 23

Boundary Impairment

Answer 23

Impaired ability to sense where one’s body ends and others’ bodies begin (i.e. pt drinks another’s beverage, believing that because it’s in his vicinity, it’s his).

Question 24

Catatonia

Answer 24

A pronounced increase or decrease in the rate and amount of movement.

Question 25

Motor retardation

Answer 25

A pronounced slowing of movement.

Question 26

Motor Agitation

Answer 26

Excited behavior often in response to internal or external stimuli (i.e. running, pacing rapidly).

Question 27

Stereotyped Behaviors

Answer 27

Repeated motor behaviors that do not presently serve a logical purpose.

Question 28

Automatic Obedience

Answer 28

The performance by a catatonic pt of all simple commands in a robot-like fashion.

Question 29

Waxy Flexibility

Answer 29

The extended maintenance of posture, usually seen in catatonia (i.e. the nurse raises the pt’s arm and pt continues to hold this position in a statue-like manner).

Question 30

Negativism

Answer 30

Akin to resistance but may not be intentional.

Question 31

Impaired Impulse Control

Answer 31

A reduced ability to resist one’s impulses.

Question 32

Flat affect

Answer 32

immobile or blank facial expression.

Question 33

Blunted Affect

Answer 33

Reduced or minimal emotional response.

Question 34

Inappropriate Affect

Answer 34

Emotional response incongruent with the tone or circumstances of the situation (i.e. man laughs when told his father has died).

Question 35

Bizarre Affect

Answer 35

Odd, illogical, emotional state that is grossly inappropriate or unfounded.

Question 36

Anergia

Answer 36

Lack of energy; passivity; lack of persistence at work or school.

Question 37

Anhedonia

Answer 37

Inability to experience pleasure in activities that usually produce it.

Question 38

Avolition

Answer 38

Reduced motivation; inability to initiate tasks such as social contacts, grooming, and other ADLs.

Question 39

Poverty of Content of Speech

Answer 39

While adequate in amount, speech conveys little information because of vagueness or superficiality.

Question 40

Poverty of Speech

Answer 40

Reduced amount of speech; responses range from brief to one-word answers.

Question 41

Thought Blocking

Answer 41

A sudden interruption in the thought process, usually due to internal stimuli.

Question 42

Atypical Antipsychotics

Answer 42

Serotonin-dopamine antagonists; treat both positive and negative sx with minimal to no EPS; tends to cause significant weight gain.

Question 43

Conventional Antipsychotics

Answer 43

Dopamine receptor antagonists; target positive sx of schizophrenia; may cause EPS, tardive dyskinesia, anticholinergic effects; lowers seizure threshold.

Question 44

Neuroleptic Malignant Syndrome (NMS)

Answer 44

Acute, life-threatening medical emergency characterized by severe EPS, hyperpyrexia (above 103 degrees F), autonomic dysfunction (htn, tachycardia, diaphoresis, incontinence), delirium, stupor, coma.