Thought disorders

Question 1

What is circumstantiality?

Answer 1

Inability to answer question without giving excessive, unnecessary detail
Topic does eventually return to original point

Question 2

What is tangentiality?

Answer 2

Wandering from a topic without returning to it

Question 3

What are neologisms?

Answer 3

New word formations inc. combination of new words

Question 4

What are clang associations?

Answer 4

When ideas are related to each other only by the fact they sound similar or rhyme

Question 5

What is word salad?

Answer 5

Completely incoherent speech where real words are strung together into nonsense sentences

Question 6

What is knight’s move thinking?

Answer 6

Severe type of loosening of associations
Unexpected and illogical leaps from one idea to the other
Feature of schizophrenia

Question 7

What is flight of ideas?

Answer 7

Feature of mania
Thought disorder
Leaps from one topic to another
Discernible links between them

Question 8

What is perseveration?

Answer 8

Repetition of ideas or words despite an attempt to change the topic

Question 9

What is echolalia?

Answer 9

Repetition of someone else’s speech, including the question that was asked

Question 10

What are the three ways thought stream can be disordered?

Answer 10

Acceleration (pressured thought / flight of ideas)
Retardation
Thought blocking

Question 11

What thought stream disorder is often seen in mania?

Answer 11

Flight of ideas

Question 12

What thought stream disorder is often seen in depressive illness?

Answer 12

Retardation (slow speed of thinking)

Question 13

What thought form disorder is most often seen in dementia?

Answer 13

Perseveration

Question 14

What thought stream disorder is most often seen in schizophrenia?

Answer 14

Thought blocking

Question 15

What are four ways thought form can be disordered?

Answer 15

Loosening of association: (1) derailment of thought (knight’s move thinking), (2) tangential thinking, (3) Word salad
Circumstantiality
Neologisms
Perseveration

Question 16

What thought form disorder is most often seen in schizophrenia and autism?

Answer 16

Neologisms (words and phrases devised by patient or new meaning to existing words)

Question 17

What thought form disorder is most often seen in obsessional personalities and learning disabilities?

Answer 17

Circumstantiality

Question 18

What are the three ways thought content can be disordered?

Answer 18

Delusions
Obsessional thoughts
Preoccupations / overvalued ideas

Question 19

What is the definition of a delusion?

Answer 19

Fixed false beliefs which are firmly held despite evidence to the contrary and go against the individual’s normal social / cultural belief system

Question 20

What is the definition of an obsessional thought?

Answer 20

Distressing thoughts that enter the mind despite the patient’s effort to resist them

Question 21

What thought content disorder is most commonly seen in obsessive-compulsive disorder?

Answer 21

Obsessional thoughts

Question 22

What is the definition of a preoccupation / overvalued idea?

Answer 22

Strongly held beliefs
Can be put out of the mind with effort

Question 23

What disorders are preoccupations / overvalued ideas commonly seen in?

Answer 23

Depressive disorders
Anxiety disorders
Eating disorders
Sexual disorders

Question 24

What are the 4 classifications used for delusions?

Answer 24

Cause (primary / secondary)
Mood (congruent / incongruent)
Plausability (bizarre / non-bizarre)
Content (e.g. grandiose, persecutory, reference etc.)

Question 25

What is the definition of a grandiose delusion?

Answer 25

Special powers, talented, wealthy, important, chosen by god

Question 26

What is the definition of a persecutory delusion?

Answer 26

Other people are conspiring against them in order to inflict harm / destroy reputation

Question 27

What is the definition of a reference delusion?

Answer 27

Random events, objects or behaviour of others have special significance / impact to oneself

Question 28

What is the definition of a guilt delusion?

Answer 28

One has done something sinful or shameful

Question 29

What is the definition of a hypochondriacal delusion?

Answer 29

One has a medical illness despite sound medical evidence to the contrary

Question 30

What is the definition of De Clerambault’s syndrome?

Answer 30

Person of high status / power is in love with them
Paranoid delusion that is amorous in nature
Usually seen in women

Question 31

What is the definition of Othello syndrome?

Answer 31

Spouse / sexual partner is being unfaithful without evidence to support claim

Question 32

What is the definition of Capgras’ syndrome?

Answer 32

Familiar person / place has been replaced with exact duplicate

Question 33

What is the definition of a nihilistic delusion?

Answer 33

Worthless or dying
Sev cases: everything is non-existent inc. themselves

Question 34

What is the definition of an infestation delusion?

Answer 34

One is infested by small organisms

Question 35

What is the definition of a folie a deux delusion?

Answer 35

A rare syndrome in which a delusional belief is shared between two people
Often between two people from the same family

Question 36

What is the definition of a delusional memory?

Answer 36

Where a delusional belief is based on a memory / false memory
e.g. a man recalls a woman giggling in a cafe a week ago and now realises she knew that he was infested by small organisms