L2: Psychiatric Symptoms & Signs Flashcards
Definition of perception
- The process by which sensory stimuli are given a meaning (i.e. transferring physical stimulation into psychological information).
Disorders of perception
- Illusions
- Hallucinations
- Depersonalization & Derealisation
Characters of Illusions
- May affect any sensory modality (auditory, visual, …).
- May occur in normal or pathological condition (e.g delirium).
Def of Illusions
- Misinterpretation of a real external sensory stimuli e.g.: mistaking a robe for a snake and mirage phenomenon.
Def of Hallucinations
False perception in absence of any external stimuli.
classification of hallucinations, according to complexity
Elementary:
- Hallucination are ill formed stimuli e.g. noises, flashes of light
Complex:
- Hallucination are more sophisticated and relatively meaningful stimuli e.g. voices, music, faces, scenes
what are Hallucinations classified according to?
- complexity
- Sensory modality
what is the most common type of hallucinations?
Auditory hallucination
Classification of hallucinations, according to sensory modality
- Auditory Hallucinations
- Visual hallucinations
- Tactile hallucinations
- Olfactory and Gustatory hallucinations
- Somatic hallucinations
where do Auditory hallucination mainly occur?
- They mainly occur in psychotic disorders especially schizophrenia.
Varieties of Auditory hallucination
where is visual hallucination most common?
- Most common in organic mental disorders (e.g delirium, substance intoxication or withdrawal).
- May occur in schizophrenia, severe mood disorder or dissociative disorder.
what are Tactile hallucination?
- False perception of touch e.g phantom limb (from amputated limb)
- Crawling sensation on or under the skin in cocaine intoxication or withdrawal.
where is Olfactory (smell) or gustatory (taste) hallucination most common?
- Most common in organic disorders e.g temporal lobe epilepsy.
- May occur also in: schizophrenia or severe mood disorders.
what are Somatic hallucinations?
- False sensation of things occurring in the body (mostly visceral).
Examples of Somatic hallucinations
- complaint that a snake is wondering in the abdomen and complaint of buming pain in the brain.
where do Somatic hallucinations occur?
- They usually occur in psychotic disorders especially schizophrenia.
Hallucination can occur in normal conditions such as ……
- While getting into sleep (hypnagogic).
- During awakening (hypnopompic).
- After physical stimulation of a sense organ (flashes of light after pressing the eye ball).
what is Depersonalization & Derealisation?
Disturbed perception of oneself or the surrounding environment.
Def of Depersonalization
- The person perceive himself, his body or parts of his body as different, unreal or unfamiliar.
Def of Derealization
- The person perceive the external world, objects or people as different, strange or unreal.
where do Depersonalization and derealization occur?
- Depersonalization and derealization can occur in normal person during stress, in anxiety disorders, mood disorder, schizophrenia and in organic disorders e.g. temporal lobe epilepsy.
what are disorders of thinking classified into?
- Disorders of the form of thinking
- Disorders of the stream of thinking
- Disorders of the content of thinking
Characters of Disorders of
The form of thinking
- They are also called formal thought disorders.
- They are abnormalities in the logical structure and association of thoughts.
- They lead to failure in producing coherent and logically connected meanings.
- Formal thought disorders usually occur in psychotic disorders and in organic mental disorders.
what are types of Disorders of
The form of thinking?
- Loosening of associations
- Incoherence
- Word Salad
- neologism
- Verbigration
- Perservation
- Clang Associations
- Irrelevance
- Circumstatiality
- Tangentiality
- Derailment
Def of Loosening of associations
Mild degree of loosening between ideas rather than words or group of words.
Def of Incoherence
- Severe degree of loosening of association to the extent that thoughts and words seem to run together without logical or grammatical rules or connection.
Def of Word Salad
- Extreme loosening of association in which the speech become haphazard mixing of words and phrases.
Def of Neologism
- Fragmentation of words into sounds or syllables that results in a complete jargon of insensible sounds
although the patient may look like speaking a foreign language.
Def of Verbigration
- Spontaneous repetition of specific words or phrases without any apparent meaning or motivation.
Def of Perservation
- Occur when the patient repeats the same response despite changing the stimulus.
Def of Clang association
- Association of words according to their tone, sound or rhyme, but not according to meaning.
Def of Irrelevance
- In which the patient responds to a specific stimulus by a response that is not related to the stimulus.
Def of Circumstatiality
- The patient gives unnecessary details but ultimately reaches the goal.
Def of Tangentiality
- Ideas are poorly connected to each other around a basic central theme.
- Ideas look as if going beside each other just touching part of the adjacent idea and only moving along periphery of the goal to be reached.
Def of Derailment
- Sudden deviation of the train of thought; the patient suddenly change the subject of speech
- If derailment is preceded by a period of silence, it is called thought block.
what are disorders of the stream of thinking?
what are disorders of the content of thinking?
- These are abnormalities in the ideas or beliefs contained in the thought.
- They include:
1. Delusions.
2. Obsessions.
Def of Delusions
- False fixed belief based on incorrect inferences about reality
Characters of Delusions
- It is not consistent with the patient cultural background.
- It cannot be corrected by logic or reasoning.
Types of Delusions
Types of delusions according to the theme
- Delusion of persecution
- Delusion of grandeur or grandiosity
- Delusion of reference
- Delusion of guilt or self accusation
- Nihilistic delusion
- Hypochondriacal delusion
- Delusion of infidelity (delusional jealousy)
- Erotomania (delusion of love)
- Delusion of influence and control (passivity phenomena)
Delusion of persecution
- The patients believe that people are harassing them, chasing them, spying on them or trying to kill them.
Delusion of grandeur or grandiosity
- The patient believes that he has special power or high religious position.
Delusion of reference
- The patient believes that the usual events have a special (usually dangerous) significance in reference to him e.g. people are starring at him, talking about him
- Sometimes he believe that people in TV are talking about him or talking directly to him.
Delusion of guilt or self accusation
- False belief of remorse and gui
Nihilistic delusion
- The patient denies the existence of one organ or may deny the existence of the whole person.
Hypochondriacal delusion
- The patient believes that he has a serious illness despite the absence of medical evidence.
Delusion of infidelity (delusional jealousy)
- The belief that one’s spouse is unfaithful despite no supporting evidence.
Compare between obsessions & Compulsions
Def of Stuttering and stammering
Def of Aphasia
Compare between mood & affect
Types of Pleasant mood
Types of unpleasant mode
Types of Amnesia
Compare between attention & Concentration
