UMHS

University of Medicine and Health Sciences

1. Abreaction-relive the moment

(traumatic events) in a controlled
environment. Psychotherapy
2. Abstract- a type of thing-an idea-eg.
fairness
3. Abulia- lack of will/ initiative. Cant
make decision.
4. Acrephobia-extreme irrational fear
of heights
5. Acting out- defense mechanismtemper tantrum- seek attentionusually antisocial- do drugsdestructive to self or others.
6. Adiadochokinesia- inability to
perform rapid alternating
movements (eg flexion and
extension)
7. Affect- the experience of feeling or
emotion
8. Aggression-forceful, hostile,
attacking. Intention to cause harm
or act intended to increase relative
social dominance.
9. Agitation-emotional state of
excitement or restlessness
10. Agnosia-loss of ability to recognize
objects, persons, sounds, shape,
smell while the specific sense is not
defective. Damage to
occipitotemporal border (part of
ventral stream). Usually affect a
single modality
11. Agoraphobia-usually fear of public
places. Fear of having panic attacks
in public places. Anxiety in situations
perceived to be difficult or
embarrassing to escape.
12. Agraphia-impaired writing
(handwriting) learning disability

13. Akinesia-inability to initiate

movement due to difficulty selecting
and or activating motor programs in
CNS
14. Alexia-brain disorder affecting ability
to read
15. Alexithymia-deficiency in
understanding, processing, or
describing emotions. without
words for emotions
16. Alogia- general lack of additional,
unprompted content of normal
speech. Like avoiding qns.
17. Ambivalence- having thoughts and
or emotions of both positive and
negative valence toward someone
or something. Love and hate.
18. Amnesia- loss of memory
19. Anaclitic- strong emotional
dependence on others (infant on
mother)
20. Analgesia- drugs to relief pain
21. Androgyny- person who does not fit
cleanly into the typical masculine
and feminine gender roles of their
society.
22. Anergia- condition of lethargy or
lack of physical activity
23. Anhedonia- inability to experience
pleasure from activities usually
found enjoyable
24. Anorexia- poor appetite. Excessive
weight loss. Starve themselves.
25. Anosognosia-unawareness of
dramatic impairments
26. Antrograde amnesia-loss of ability to
create new memories, long term
memory before the event is intact.
27. Anxiety-displeasing feeling of fear
and concern

28. Apathy-state of indifference.

Emotional, social, and or physical
life. Learned helplessness.
29. Aphasia-language impairment
30. Aphonia- A disorder of the
vocal organs that results in the loss
of voice
31. Apperception- The process whereby
perceived qualities of an object are
related to past experience
32. Appropriate affect-Expressing a full
range of normal emotion which
makes sense in the current situation.
33. Apraxia- Inability to make
purposeful movements
34. Astereognosis- A loss of the ability
to recognize objects by handling
them
35. Ataxia- Inability to coordinate
voluntary muscle movements;
unsteady movements and staggering
gait
36. Attention- The process whereby a
person concentrates on some
features of the environment to the
(relative) exclusion of others
37. Auditory hallucination- paracusiaperceiving sound without auditory
stimulus
38. Aura- perceptual disturbance
experienced by some migraine
sufferers before a migraine
headache, and the telltale sensation
experienced by some people with
epilepsy before a seizure.
39. Autistic thinking- preoccupation
with inner thoughts, daydreams,
fantasies, private logic; egocentric,
subjective thinking lacking
objectivity and connection with
external reality.
40. Bereavement- period of mourning
and grief following death of a
beloved person/ animal

41. Blackout- Lose consciousness due to

a sudden trauma, for example
42. Blocking- be unable to remember
43. Blunted affect- lack emotional
reactivity. Manifested as failure to
express feelings either verbally or
nonverbally. Little animation in
facial expression or vocal inflection.
44. Bradykinesia- abnormal slowness of
movement
45. Bruxism- Involuntarily or
unconsciously clenching or grinding
the teeth, typically during sleep
46. Catalepsy- A trancelike (state
resembling deep sleep) state with
loss of voluntary motion and failure
to react to stimuli
47. Cataplexy- narcolepsy- sleep
disorder that causes excessive
sleepiness and frequent daytime
sleep attacks.
48. Catatonic excitement- agitation and
seemingly pointless movement.
49. Cerea flexibitas- rigidity of the body
in which the patient maintains
whatever position he is placed in
50. Circumstantiality- Fully detailed and
specific about particulars
51. Clang association- mode of speech
characterized by association of
words based upon sound rather
than concepts, associated with the
irregular thinking apparent in
psychotic mental illnesses such as
schizophrenia. Rhyming and
alliteration.
52. Claustrophobia- A morbid fear of
being closed in a confined space
53. Clouding of consciousness- mental
state not fully in contact with the
environment.
54. Cognition- The psychological result
of perception and learning and
reasoning

55. Coma- A state of deep and often

prolonged unconsciousness; usually
the result of disease or injury
56. Compulsion- An irrational motive for
performing trivial or repetitive
actions, even against your will
57. Concrete thinking- thinking
characterized by a predominance of
actual objects and events and the
absence of concepts and
generalizations
58. Confabulation- a plausible but
imagined memory that fills in gaps in
what is remembered
59. Confusion- A mental state
characterized by a lack of clear and
orderly thought and behaviour
60. Consciousness- An alert
cognitive state in which you are
aware of yourself and your situation
61. Constricted affect- affect type that
represent mild reduction in the
range and intensity of emotional
expression.
62. Conversion phenomena- somatic
symptoms found in the hysteric
63. Coprolalia- An uncontrollable use of
obscene language; often
accompanied by mental disorders
64. Coprophagia- Eating faeces; in
human a symptom of some kinds of
insanity
65. Decompensation- functional
deterioration of previously working
structure or system.
66. Dj vu- The experience of thinking
that a new situation had occurred
before
67. Delirium- A usually brief state of
excitement and mental confusion
often accompanied by hallucinations
68. Delirium tremens- severe form of
alcohol withdrawal that involves

sudden and severe mental or

nervous system changes.
69. Delusion- an erroneous belief that is
held in the face of evidence
to the contrary
70. Dementia- Mental deterioration of
organic or functional origin. Affects
memory, thinking, language,
judgment, and behavior.
71. Denial- a defence mechanism that
denies painful thoughts
72. Depersonalization- Emotional
dissociative disorder in which there
is loss of contact with your own
personal reality accompanied by
feelings of unreality and strangeness
73. Derailment- loosening of
association, asyndesis, asyndetic
thinking, knights move thinking,
entgleisen- patter of discourse
(speech or writing) that is a
sequence of unrelated or only
remotely related ideas. Thought
disorder- slippage of ideas further
and further from the point of
discussion.
74. Dereism- mental activity that is
absorbed in fantasy, lacking any
connection to the external world or
reality
75. Disinhibition- lack of restraintdisregard for social conventions,
impulsivity, poor risk assessment.
Affects motor, instinctual, emotional
, cognitive and perceptual aspects
with sign and symptoms similar to
the diagnostic criteria for mania.
76. Disorientation- cognitive disability in
which the senses of time, direction
and recognition of people and
places become difficult to
distinguish.
77. Displacement- a defence mechanism
that transfers affect or reaction from

the original object to some more

acceptable one
78. Dissociation- a detachment from
reality but NOT a loss of reality as in
psychosis. Detachment from ones
immediate surround or physical and
emotional reality. Defense
mechanism to seek to master,
minimize or tolerate stress.
79. Dysarthria- Impaired articulatory
ability resulting from defects in the
peripheral motor nerves or in the
speech musculature
80. Dyscalculia- Impaired ability to learn
grade-appropriate mathematics
81. Dyslexia- Impaired ability to learn
to read
82. Dyspareunia- painful sexual
intercourse, due to medical or
psychological causes
83. Dysphagia- Condition in which
swallowing is difficult or painful
84. Dysphasia- An impairment of
language (especially
speech production) that is usually
due to brain damage
85. Encopresis- Involuntary defecation
not attributable to physical defects
or illness
86. Enuresis- Inability to control the
flow of urine and involuntary
urination
87. Erotomania- delusion that
someone, usually a stranger, high
status or famous person is in love
with him or her.
88. Euphoria- A feeling of great (usually
exaggerated) elation
89. Euthymia- normal, non-depressed,
reasonably positive mood.
90. Disphoria- Abnormal depression
and discontent
91. Dysprosody-pseudo foreign dialect
syndrome- one or more of the

prosodic functions are either

compromised or eliminated
completely.
92. Distonia- neurological movement
disorder, in which sustained muscle
contractions cause twisting and
repetitive movements or abnormal
postures.
93. Echolalia- mechanical and
meaningless repetition of the words
of another person (as in
schizophrenia)
94. Ego-syntonic- behaviors, values,
feelings that are in harmony with or
acceptable to the needs and goals of
the ego, or consistent with ones
ideal self image
95. Egocentric- Limited to or caring
only about yourself and your own
needs
96. Eidetic image- subject claims to
LITERALLY SEE, in exceptional detail,
an image of some recently- seen
object
97. Emotional insight- understanding
your emotions and the emotions of
others in order to be more
productive and create better teams.
98. Emotional lability- regular
occurrence of unstable,
disproportionate emotional displays.
99. Extroversion- concern with what is
outside the self
100. Folie deux- The simultaneous
occurrence of symptoms of a
mental disorder (as delusions) in
two persons who are closely related
(as siblings or man and wife)
101. Formal thought disorder- describe
incomprehensible language, either
speech or writing, that is presumed
to reflect thinking.
102. Formication- Hallucinated
sensation that insects or snakes are

crawling over the skin; a common

side-effect of extensive use of
cocaine or amphetamines
103. Flight of ideas- language may be
difficult to understand if it switches
quickly from one unrelated idea to
another
104. Fugue- Dissociative disorder in
which a person forgets who they are
and leaves home to create a new
life; during the fugue there is no
memory of the former life; after
recovering there is no memory for
events during the dissociative state
105. Galactorrhea- spontaneous flow of
milk from the breast, unassociated
with childbirth or nursing
106. Glossolalia- Repetitive
nonmeaningful speech (especially
that associated with a trance state
or religious fervour)
107.
Grandiosity- a person has
an inflated self-esteem, believe
they have special powers, spiritual
connections, or religious
relationships.When grandiosity is
severe, the person may be
delusional about his or her
capabilities
108. Grief- Intense sorrow caused by
loss of a loved one (especially by
death)
109. Gustatory hallucination- sensation
of tasting something that isn't really
there, typically an unpleasant flavor.
110. Gynecomastia- Excessive
development of the breasts in
males; usually the result of
hormonal imbalance or treatment
with certain drugs (including some
antihypertensives)

111. Hallucination- Illusory perception;

a common symptom of severe
mental disorder
112. Hypersomnia- An inability to stay
awake
113. Hypnagogic-Sleep inducing
114. Hypnopompic- equivalent
transition to wakefulness. Of or
relating to the partially conscious
state that precedes complete
awakening from sleep
115. Hypomania- a mood state
characterized by persistent and
pervasive elevated (euphoric) or
irritable mood, as well as thoughts
and behaviors that are consistent
with such a mood state. Many
people also experience signature
hypersexuality.
116. Idea of reference- delusions of
reference involve people having a
belief or perception that irrelevant,
unrelated or innocuous phenomena
in the world refer to them directly or
have special personal significance:
'the notion that everything one
perceives in the world relates to
one's own destiny'
117. Impaired judgment- not specific to
any diagnosis but may be a
prominent feature of disorders
affecting the frontal lobe of the
brain.
118. Inappropriate affect- affect that is
incongruent with the situation or
with the content of a patient's ideas
or speech.
119. Insight- The clear (and often
sudden) understanding of a complex
situation
120. Intelligence- The ability to
comprehend; to understand and
profit from experience

121. Introspection- The contemplation

of your own thoughts and desires
and conduct
122. Introversion- the directing of
interest inwards towards one's own
thoughts and feelings rather than
towards the external world or
making social contacts
123. Jamais vu- the experience of being
unfamiliar with a person or situation
that is actually very familiar;
associated with certain types of
epilepsy
124. Judgement- The capacity to assess
situations or circumstances shrewdly
and to draw sound conclusions. The
cognitive process of reaching a
decision or drawing conclusions
125. La belle indifference- an
inappropriately complacent
(Uncritically satisfied with oneself or
one's actions; not looking to
improve ) attitude towards their
condition and physical symptoms,
seen in patients with conversion
disorder.
126. Labile affect- rapid changes in
emotion unrelated to external
events or stimuli.
127. Logorrhea- Pathologically excessive
(and often incoherent) talking
128. Loosening of associations- a
disorder of thinking in which
associations of ideas become so
shortened, fragmented, and
disturbed as to lack logical
relationship. Psychiatry Disordered
thinking in which ideas shift from
one subject to another in an oblique
or unrelated manner, without the
speaker being aware of same; when
severe, speech may be incoherent.
Cf Flight of ideas.

129. Malingering- malingering is the act

of intentionally feigning (Pretending
with intention to deceive) or
exaggerating physical or
psychological symptoms for
personal gain.
130. Mania- Mania is an abnormally
elated mental state, typically
characterized by feelings of
euphoria, lack of inhibitions, racing
thoughts, diminished need for sleep,
talkativeness, risk taking, and
irritability. In extreme cases, mania
can induce hallucinations and other
psychotic symptoms.
131. Memory- The mental faculty of
retaining and recalling past
experience based on the mental
processes of learning, retention,
recall, and recognition.
132. Microcephaly- An abnormally small
head and underdeveloped brain
133. Mood- a pervasive and sustained
emotion that, when extreme, can
color one's whole view of life. a
prolonged subjective emotional
state that influences one's whole
personality and perception of the
world. Examples include sadness,
elation, and anger.
134. Mood-congruent hallucination- the
characteristics of a psychosis in
which the content of hallucinations
or delusions is consistent with an
elevated, expansive mood or with a
depression. Mood congruence is
most often noted in mood disorders,
whereas schizophrenia is often a
mood-incongruent disorder.
135. Motor aphasia- Broca's or
nonfluent aphasia; that in which the
ability to speak and write is
impaired, due to a lesion in the
insula and surrounding operculum.

136. Mydriasis- Reflex pupillary dilation

as a muscle pulls the iris outward;
occurs in response to a decrease in
light or certain drugs
137. Narcissism- An exceptional interest
in and admiration for yourself
138. Negative signs- Any symptoms
involving loss of normal mental
function, seen in schizophrenia,
depression, and other mental
disorders Examples Blunting of or
range of affect, loss of will, pleasure,
fluency, and content of speech,
range of emotion, sense of purpose,
social drives, poverty of speech, loss
of interests.
139. Neologism- The act of inventing a
word or phrase
140. Nihilism- A delusion, experienced
in some mental disorders, that the
world or one's mind, body, or self
does not exist. an attitude of
skepticism regarding traditional
values and beliefs or their frank
rejection.
141. Obsession- a persistent unwanted
idea or impulse that cannot be
eliminated by reasoning.
142. Orientation- awareness of one's
environment with reference to time,
place, and people.
143. Paresis- slight or incomplete
paralysis.
144. Paresthesia- morbid (Caused by or
altered by or manifesting disease or
pathology ) or perverted (Having an
intended meaning altered or
misrepresented) sensation; an
abnormal sensation, as burning,
prickling, formication (Hallucinated
sensation that insects or snakes are
crawling over the skin; a common
side-effect of extensive use of
cocaine or amphetamines)

145. Perception- conscious mental

registration of a sensory stimulus
146. Perseveration- Uncontrollable
repetition of a particular response,
such as a word, phrase, or gesture,
despite the absence or cessation of
a stimulus, usually caused by brain
injury or other organic disorder. The
tendency to continue or repeat an
act or activity after the cessation of
the original stimulus.
147. Phobia- a persistent, irrational,
intense fear of a specific object,
activity, or situation (the phobic
stimulus), fear that is recognized as
being excessive or unreasonable by
the individual himself.
148. Positive signs- Symptoms of
schizophrenia that are characterized
by the production or presence of
behaviors that are grossly abnormal
or excessive, including hallucinations
and thought-process disorder. DSMIV subdivides positive symptoms
into psychotic and disorganized.
149. Poverty of speech- A negative
symptom of schizophrenia,
characterized by brief and empty
replies to questions. It should not be
confused with shyness or reluctance
to talk.
150. Pressured speech- logorrheaExcessive use of words.
151. Projection- an unconscious
defense mechanism by which a
person attributes to someone else
unacknowledged ideas, thoughts,
feelings, and impulses that they
cannot accept as their own.
152. Prosopagnosia- inability to
recognize the faces of other people
or one's own features in a mirror,
due to damage to the underside of
both occipital lobes

153. Pseudodementia- A condition of

exaggerated indifference to one's
surroundings without actual mental
impairment.
154. Psychosis- symptom or feature of
mental illness typically characterized
by radical changes in personality,
impaired functioning, and a
distorted or nonexistent sense of
objective reality.
155. Rationalization- the most
commonly used defense
mechanism, in which an individual
justifies ideas, actions, or feelings
with seemingly acceptable reasons
or explanations. It is often used to
preserve self-respect, reduce guilt
feelings, or obtain social approval or
acceptance.
156. Reaction formation- a defense
mechanism in which a person
adopts conscious attitudes,
interests, or feelings that are the
opposites of their unconscious
feelings, impulses, or wishes.
157. Reality testing- an ego function
that enables one to differentiate
between external reality and an
inner imaginative world and to
behave in a manner that exhibits an
awareness of accepted norms and
customs. Impairment of reality
testing is indicative of a disturbance
in ego functioning that may lead to
psychosis.
158. Regression- defensive retreat to an
earlier, often infantile, pattern of
behavior or thought.
159. Repression- in psychiatry, an
unconscious defense mechanism in
which unacceptable ideas, fears, and
impulses are thrust out or kept out
of consciousness. The unconscious
exclusion of painful impulses,

desires, or fears from the conscious

mind
160. Restricted affect- reduction in the
intensity of affect, to a somewhat
lesser degree than is characteristic
of blunted affect.
161. Retrograde amnesia- amnesia for
events occurring prior to the
episode precipitating the disorder.
162. Sensorium- the part of the
consciousness that includes the
special sensory perceptive powers
and their central correlation and
integration in the brain. A clear
sensorium conveys the presence of
a reasonably accurate memory
together with a correct orientation
for time, place, and person.
Sensorium may be clouded in
certain stages of delirium.
163. Somatotopagnosia- body image
agnosia. Autotopagnosia. lack of
knowledge about ones own space,
and is clinically described as such.
Autotopagnosia is a form of agnosia,
characterized by an inability to
localize and orient different parts of
the body
164. Stereotypy- the persistent,
inappropriate mechanical repetition
of actions, body postures, or speech
patterns, usually occurring with a
lack of variation in thought
processes or ideas. It is often seen in
patients with schizophrenia.
165. Sublimation- consciously
unacceptable instinctual drives are
expressed in personally and socially
acceptable channels.
166. Suppression- the conscious
exclusion of unacceptable thoughts
or desires
167. Synesthesia- A sensation that
normally occurs in one

sense modality occurs when another

modality is stimulated
168. Tangentiality- A disturbance in the
associative thought process in which
one tends to digress readily from
one topic under discussion to other
topics that arise through
association.
169. Terminal insomnia- a chronic sleep
disturbance occurring at the end of
a sleep period. It may be indicative
of an underlying depressive disorder
and treated with an antidepressant.
170. Thought broadcasting- a symptom
of psychosis in which the patient
believes that his or her thoughts are
"broadcast" beyond the head so that
other people can hear them.
171. Thought disorder- a disturbance in
the thought process that is most
narrowly defined as disorganized
thinking with altered associations, as
is characteristic of schizophrenia.
The term is often used much more
broadly to include any disturbance
of thought, such as confusion,
hallucinations, or delusions, which
affects possession, quantity, or
content of thought.
172. Thought insertion- A schizophrenic
delusion in which the patient
believes in or acts on hallucinated
external voices
173. Thought withdrawal- A delusion
typical of schizophrenia, in which
the patient believes that his
thoughts have been removed by a
hallucinated external force
174. Tie disorders
175. Unconscious - the part of the mind
not readily accessible to conscious
awareness but whose existence may
be manifested in symptom

formation, in dreams, or under the

influence of drugs.
176. Undoing- the performance of a
specific action that is intended to
negate in part a previous action or
communication. According to some
psychologists, undoing is related to
the magical thinking of childhood.
For example, a spouse brings home
flowers after having a lunchtime
affair with another person. a DEFENSE
MECHANISM aimed at negating or
atoning for some disapproved act or
impulse by performing an action
that is somehow opposite to that
feared; most commonly seen in the
rituals accompanying OBSESSIVECOMPULSIVE DISORDER.
177. Vegetative signs- A persistent
vegetative state is a disorder of
consciousness in which patients with
severe brain damage are in a state
of partial arousal rather than true
awareness. It is a diagnosis of some
uncertainty in that it deals with
a syndrome. After four weeks in
avegetative state (VS), the patient is
classified as in a persistent
vegetative state. This diagnosis is
classified as a permanent vegetative
state (PVS) after approximately one
year of being in a vegetative state.[1]
178. Vertigo- A sensation of dizziness
marked by the feeling that one's self
or surroundings are spinning or
whirling.
179. Word salad- meaningless mixture
of words and phrases characteristic
of advanced schizophrenia.
180. Xenophobia- an anxiety disorder
characterized by a pervasive,
irrational fear or uneasiness in the
presence of strangers, especially
foreigners, or in new surroundings.