Terms and Definitions

Question 1

Dysthymia

Answer 1

A chronic state of low mood, usually with an insidious onset lasting at least 2 years

Question 2

Euthymia

Answer 2

Normal, non-depressed, reasonably positive mood

Question 3

Mood

Answer 3

A person’s predominant feeling at a given time (season/climate)

Question 4

Affect

Answer 4

Short-lived, observable pattern of behaviour that expresses the subjective emotional state of an individual (weather)

Question 5

Alexithymia

Answer 5

Inability to express one’s emotions

Question 6

Anhedonia

Answer 6

Total inability to enjoy life

Question 7

Psychomotor retardation

Answer 7

• Abnormal stillness
• Abnormally slow walking
• Abnormally long time to initiate movement

Question 8

Flight of ideas

Answer 8

• Rapid flow of thought
• Accelerated speech with abrupt changes in topic
• Loss of normal structure of thought
• Muddled
• Often seen in manic patients

Question 9

Pressure of Speech

Answer 9

• Subjects talk too much
• Pressure to get words out
• Fast, loud speech with unnecessary words

Question 10

Depersonalisation

Answer 10

• Peculiar change in awareness of self
• Patient feels unreal and detached
• Retains some understanding and understands condition is abnormal

Question 11

Illusion

Answer 11

A false perception of a real stimulus

Question 12

Affect illusion

Answer 12

Emotional state leads to the incorrect interpretation of a shadow

Question 13

Pareidolia

Answer 13

Perceive formed objects from ambiguous stimuli - penis in clouds

Question 14

Completion illusion

Answer 14

Due to inattention, an incomplete object is perceived as complete

Question 15

Pseudohallucination

Answer 15

• Perceptual experience that is not concretely real

- Lack qualities of full real perceptions

Question 16

Hallucination

Answer 16

• False perception that occurs in the absence of a stimulus

- Person experiencing has fully real experience

Question 17

Thought Echo

Answer 17

• As if own thoughts are being spoken out loud

- May have slight change in echo

Question 18

Thought Withdrawal

Answer 18

Subject feels that thoughts have been removed from head by an external agency so has no thoughts

Question 19

Thought Broadcast

Answer 19

• Subject feels that thoughts are being shared with others

- Often with large numbers of people via telepathy, radio or TV

Question 20

Delusion

Answer 20

A fixed, firmly held belief that is held with unshakeable condition despite overwhelming evidence by the subject’s cultural/religious background

Question 21

Delusions of control/passivity

Answer 21

Subjects thoughts, feelings, actions are not their own but are being imposed/controlled by an outside force

Question 22

Delusional perception

Answer 22

• Patient receives normal perception which is then associated and interpreted with delusional meaning and has immense personal meaning
• Associating normal perception with something ridiculous like seeing a red car means that you’re going to die in 17 days

Question 23

Negative symptoms

Answer 23

• Poverty of speech, flat affect, poor motivation and poor attention
• Can result in low activity levels and poor self-care
• Common in chronic schizophrenia

Question 24

Clouding of consciousness

Answer 24

• Deterioration in thinking attention, perception and memory

- Drowsiness and reduced awareness of environment

Question 25

Lability

Answer 25

- Subject's affect is rapidly changeable and there are marked fluctuations - Emotional incontinence in extreme form

Question 26

Nihilistic Delusions

Answer 26

Delusion of being dead, no longer existing, about to die or experience terrible doom

Question 27

Grandiose Delusions

Answer 27

Delusions of being of a special status, special powers, special purpose i.e. the chosen one

Question 28

Aphasia

Answer 28

Mute

Question 29

Concrete thinking

Answer 29

Inability to understand abstract ideas or concepts, literalness of understanding or expression

Question 30

2nd person auditory hallucinations

Answer 30

Voices talk to subject

Question 31

3rd person auditory hallucinations

Answer 31

Voices talk to each other about subject

Question 32

Ideas of reference

Answer 32

Delusional belief that innocuous events or coincidences are directly linked and have personal significance to the subject - paranoia usually

Question 33

Loosening of associations

Answer 33

- Loss of normal structured thinking - Subjects thoughts are muddled and illogical without clarity - Thought disorder

Question 34

Neologisms

Answer 34

New words that have no real meaning

Question 35

Perseveration

Answer 35

- Repetition of a particular response despite the absence or cessation of the stimulus - Often seen in organic brain disorders