Terms Flashcards
Abstract thinking
The ability to use metaphors and idiomatic language correctly and understand nuances of meaning
Affect
Subjective feeling or emotional experience that is manifested by observable behaviours such as attitude, facial expression, tone of voice etc. Can be observed by others.
Difference between affect and mood
Affect changes with time as the person reacts to various emotional experience. Mood refers to a continuous and sustained emotion.
Range of affect
Normal Restricted Blunted Flat Lab ile
Describe normal affect
Involves changes n facial expression and tone of voice and the use of gestures and body movements
Term for discernible decrease in the range and intensity of affective expressions
Restricted affect
Term for marked diminution in emotional expression
Blunted Affect
Term for absent sighs of broad rang of affective expression. Voice may be monotonous and face immobile and expressionless
Flat affect
Rapid and abrupt changes is affect
Labile affect
Agnosia. Define and types
Tactile agnosia- inability to recognise a familiar object when handled with the eyes closed
Visual object- agnosia- inability to identify objects that are shown to the patient by the therapist, despite intact vision and speech capability.
Prosopagnosia- inability to recognise familiar faces
Aphasia/dysphasia
The inability to understand language and to use it for communication. May include speech, writing and reading.
Cause: disease or injury to the regions of the brain responsible for language function.
Apraxia
Inability to perform previously learned motor tasks. Eg button
Attention
Ability to focus on a task or activity in a sustained manner
Blocking
Interruption of speech eg interruption in the train of thought, before a thought or idea has been completed.
Catatonic
Conspicuous motor anomalies.
Generally limited to non organic disease eg schizophrenia
Types of Catatonic behaviour
Catatonic excitement - Frenized motor activity, seemingly purposeless and not initiated by external stimuli.
Catatonic negativism - apparently motiveless resistance to all request or attempts to be moved. Eg keep jaw clenched if asked to open
Catatonic rigidity - the assumption of a rigid posture with resistance to all attempts at being moved.
Catatonic posturing - voluntary assumption of inappropriate or bizarre posture, usually sustained over a prolong period. Eg standing with arms outstretched.
Catatonic stupor - Markedly slowed spontaneous motor activity and responsiveness to the environment, even unawareness of surroundings.
Catatonic waxy flexibility - the pt limbs can be Moulder into any position which is then maintained.
Loose associations
Lack of coherence between sentences and the original point of the narrative is lost.
Compulsion
Repetitive and apparently purposeful behaviour that is carried out according to certain rules or in a stereotyped manner.
Performed with feeling of compulsion together with a strong desire (at least initially) to resist the impulse. They get a relief after the action is performed.
Confabulation
Fabrication of facts or events in response to questions regarding situations or episodes that cannot be recalled because of memory impairment.
Common in amnestied disorders
Conversion
Loss or alteration of physical function (usually motor or sensory) that suggests a medical disorder, but which is actually a direct manifestation of emotional conflict/need.
Can be seen in conversion disorder.
Difference between delusion and overvalued idea
Overvalued ideas is an unreasonable belief or idea that is not quite as fixed as a delusion.
Types of delusion
Bizarre Jealousy Control Reference Grandiose Mood-congruent Mood - incongruent Nihilistic Somatic Paranoid Hypochondriac Systematic
Bizarre delusion
A false belief the contents of which are clearly absurd and have no possibility of being based on fact.
Delusion jealousy
False belief that a valued material or symbolic possession I s in danger of being taken from the subject. Eg wife is having an affair.
Delusion of control
Delusion of the pt feelings, impulses, thoughts or actions are not HS or her own but rather arise from, are forced by or are served by another external force. Eg son belief his thoughts are not his but are his father has put them in his head.
Delusions of reference
Delusion in which event, objects or other people in the subjects immediate environment are seen to have unusual and special significance, usually of a sinister or humiliating nature. If involving persecution then paranoid delusion are also involved. Eg women is convince radio programs were specifically y intended for her.
Grandiose delusion
Pt has an exaggerated view of his/her own importance, power, knowledge or identity. It may involve religious, somatic or other themes.
Nihilistic delusion
A false belief that self, part of self, other or the world is nonexistent or ending. Eg world is ending or I don’t need to eat because I have no intestines.
Somatic delusion
A delusion of which the main theme relates to the functioning of the body. Eg pt believes brain is in the process of rotting
Paranoid delusion
Central theme is that the person or group s beng attacked, threatened, harassed not endangered, deceived or persecuted or that a conspiracy has been concocted against the person or group.
Hypochondriac delusion
May be somatic if involve the body
Persistent belief that the person is suffering from an illness
Systematic delusion
A single delusion with numerous elaborations or a group of delusion that are all linked by the subject not a unifying theme.
Depersonalisation
Altered perception or sense of self, so that the person temporarily feels unreal to him or herself.
May be feeling that extremities have changed in size or that the patient is observing himself from a distance
Seen in depersonalisation disorder and may occur in schizotypal personality disorder and schizophrenia
Derealisation
A feeling of altered reality in which people, events or the environment appear strange or unreal.
Incoherence
Speech largely unintelligible because of any of the following
- lack of logical connection between words, phrases, or sentences,
- excessive use of in completes sentences
- numerous irrelevancies or sudden changes of subject
- use of idiosyncratic use of words or distorted grammar
Seen in dementia or other organic brain disorders
Medical conditions, substance withdrawal and intoxication and schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders.
Disorientation
Confusion concerning the time, place or person.
Characteristic of some organic mental disorders such as delirium and dementia.
Dissociation
Part of consciousness is divorced or split off from awareness and function independently.
Characterised by a sudden temporary alteration n the normal integrated function of the consciousness eg dissociative amnesia, dissociative fugue, dissociative identity disorder and depersonalisation disorders.
Distractibility
Attention is easily drawn to unimportant or irrelevant external stimuli.
Dysarthria
Speech difficulty resulting from damage to the regions of the brain responsible for articulation
Echolalia
Repetition of words or expression of other people. Often mocking, mumbling or staccato tone of voice
Seen in children with certain serious developmental disorders, organic mental disorders and in schizophrenia
Ego - Dystonic
A symptoms or personality trait that is recognised as beng unacceptable and alien to the person.
Eg homosexual tendencies that are unacceptable and I stressing to an individual are considered egodystonic while they are ego-synodic if the person is comfortable with his homosexuality.
What are executive functions
Planning, assimilation of new information and making suitable adjustments.
If impaired pt struggle to perform complex tasks requiring planning such as operating a video machine, playing card games, managing their finances, maintaining personal hygiene etc
Flight of ideas
Almost constant flow of rapid speech with sudden changes from one topic to another.
Seen mostly in manic episodes but can be in organic mental disorders, schizophrenia, and other psychotic disorders and as a reaction to acute stress.
Disorders of thought form
Loosened associations, Incoherent speech Neologisms Perseveration Blocking Echolalia Clang association
Hallucinations
Sensory perception in the absence of an external stimulus
Types of hallucination
Auditory
Visual - images or flashes of light
Gustatory
Olfactory
Tactile - almost always associated with delusion. Formication - specific variant of tactile hallucination of pt feeling something crawling or squirming on or under the skin. Seen in alcohol withdrawal delirium and withdrawal phase of cocaine intoxication.
Somatic - physical sensation localised inside the body eg electricity flowing through the body.
Identity feeling and personal identity
The sense that one remains the same person, despite the passage of time and all that this entails.
Prominent disturbances of identity and of the subjective awareness of self are seen in schizophrenia, borderline personality disorder and in identity problems.
Illogical thinking
Thinking containing obvious internal contradictions or thinking in which patently inaccurate conclusion are arrived at, in light of the point of departure of the reasoning process.
Types of insomnia
Initial insomnia
Middle insomnia
Terminal insomnia - person wakes at least 2 hors before normal waking time and cannot sleep again thereafter.
Magical thinking
Believes the his.her thoughts, words or deeds can in some way achieve a specific outcome or result or that they will prevent or give rise to events in a manner not in keeping with the normal laws of cause and effect.
Seen in children in primitive cultures, schizotypal personality disorder, schizophrenia and obsessive compulsive disorder.
Types of mood
Depression Euphoria Anger Agitation Tiredness Retardation Excitement Anxiety
Dysphoric mood
Unpleasant mood eg depression, anxiety or irritability
Euthymic mood
Mood is within normal range
Expansive mood
More elevated than normal but does not necessarily imply pathology
Euphoric mood
An intense feeling of well being
Different between mood and affect
Mood is like climate, it remains relatively constant over time. Affect presents the current emotion, the weather at a particular point in time
Mood congruent psychotic features
Delusion or hallucinations, the contents of which are consistent with either a depressed or manic mood. Eg depression delusional context of inadequacy, guilt, sickness, death, nihilism, deserved punishment
Mood incongruent psychotic features
Delusions or hallucinations, contents of which are not consistent with either a depressed or manic mood. Eg depression delusion content would not involve inadequacy, guilt, sickness, death, nihilism or merited punishment.
Negativism
Resistance to attempts to make someone changes position or motiveless resistance to all instructions
Neologisms
New words invented by the patent, distortion of words, or standard words with new or highly idiosyncratic meanings for the patient.
Seen in schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders
Obsessions
Persistent irresistible thoughts, images or impulses that are ego-Dystonic (not produced intentionally). Intrude into consciousness
Obsessive compulsive disorder.
Palilalia
A meaningless repetition of a person’s own word or words
Panic attack
Episodes of sudden onset of intense fear, alarm or terror, often associated with feelings of impending doom but without apparent reason.
Paranoid ideas
Suspiciousness but to a lesser degree to that found in delusions.
Perseveration
Persistent repetition of words, ideas or topics. Eg pt starts to talk about a specific subject or uses a specific word and then repeats it many times during the course of the conversation. Eg You know
Seen in dementia and organic disorders of brain caused by medical conditions, substance withdrawal or intoxication and psychotic disorders
Personality
Deep seated longstanding personal qualities and behaviour patterns, reflected by the patient’s interpersonal relationships and attitudes to him/herself or his/her environment. These characteristics are so ingrained that they result in predictable behaviour patterns.
Personality traits
Prominent facets of personality that do not indicate pathology
Personality disorder
Implies grained, longstanding maladjusted behaviour patterns which are present to such a degree that they cause either subjective distress or significantly impair interpersonal or occupational functioning. Can usually be traced back to adolescence or early adulthood.
Poverty of content of speech
Speech is adequate in amount but conveys very little information because of vagueness, empty repetition or the use of sterotyped or obscure phrases. Eg talk continuously but doesn’t answer the question.
Poverty of speech (thought)
Limits the amount of speech to such an extent that spontaneous speech and responses to questions are brief and to the point. Eg monosyllables or not responded at all.
Seen in schizophrenia, major depressive episodes and organic brain disorders such as dementia.
Pressure of speech
Excessive in quantity and tempo and cannot be cut short, except with difficulty. Usually loud and explicit. Often speaks without social stimulation and may continue whether people listen or not.
Seen in manic, acute stress response and other psychotic disorders
Pseudo dementia
Clinical picture resembling dementia but not due to organic brain dysfunction
Seen in major depressive episodes
Psychomotor agitation
Excessive motor activity associated with a feeling of inner tension. Unproductive and repetitive. If severe it may be accompanied by exclamations or loud cries and moans.
Psychomotor retardation
Noticeable generalised slowing of physical reactions, movements and speech.
Psychotic
Marked impairment of reality testing. Most commonly delusion and/or hallucinations.
