Psychiatry

Study, Treatment, & prevention of

mental disorders

Definitions

Psychiatrist – doctor who specializes in psychiatry

Psychologist – qualified person in psychology,

- usually not a doctor,

- not able to prescribe medication

-studies human behaviour

Word parts

Word root Combining form Meaning

Psych psych/o soul or mind

Phob -phobia fear

Epilept epileptic/i/o seizure

Phren phren/i/o,phrenic/o diaphragm / mind / phrenic nerve

Ment ment/o mind / chin

Mental disorders

Anxiety disorders – emotional states where person fears an imagined danger

Symptoms include rapid pulse, sweating, trembling, nausea, tension, & apprehension

Psychosis – people find it difficult to distinguish fact from fantasy

Psychosomatic – symptoms feel real to the person but are of emotional or imagined origin

Mental Disorders

Confabulation – fabricated memories. person has no intention to deceive& believes memories are true

Hallucinations – sensory experiences e.g. seeing, hearing things that do not exist

Schizophrenia – any of several psychotic disorders characterised by disturbances of mood, thought, sense of self & behaviour, contact with reality

Mental Disorders

Delusions- fixed beliefs of things that are untrue, e.g. person is Jesus

Illusions – are misinterpretations of real sensory experience e.g. a mirage of seeing water in the dessert.

Panic disorders – episodes of extreme fear & can include physical symptoms of anxiety disorder

Repression – unpleasant thoughts, feelings, & ideas are suppressed or removed from consciousness

Mental Disorders

Conversion disorder – stress & anxiety are converted into body symptoms

Major depression

Word Parts

Mania madness

Neur/ nerve

-path disease

phren/o mind, diaphragm

psych/o mind

psychosomatic relating to both mind and body

psychotrophic drugs with effect on psychic function, brhaviour, & the body

schiz split,division

Diagnostic TermsAmnesia (anteretrograde)

inability to recall events following trauma

Amnesia (retrograde)

Inability to recall events preceding a trauma

Bipolar disorder affective disorder - episodes of both mania & depression

paranoid characterised by fixed & logically elaborated delusions of persecution e.g. schizophrenia

Neurosis person recognises they are ill. E.g. anxiety disorder, phobias, obsessive compulsive

Psychosis abnormal pattern of thought, action & feeling. Patient does not recognise they are ill

Conditions & termsCatatonia patient is unresponsive with fixed posture & refuses to talk

Cyclothymia alternating periods of elation & depression

delerium organic reaction resulting in alteration in consciousness & attention

Dementia acquired reduction in intelligent functioning that occurs after the brain has matured

Dissociation Dissociative experiences are characterised bycertain mental

events that would ordinarily be expected to be processed

together (e.g.,thoughts, emotions, motor activity, sensations,

memories and sense of identity) are functionally isolated from

one another and, in some cases, rendered inaccessible to

consciousness and/or voluntary recall (Steinberg, 1994).

Conditions and Terms

Mania mood disorder – elation, increased activity, rapid speech, decreased need for sleep

Defence mechanism

The means by which the psych protects itself e.g. panic

Mutism unwillingness or inability to speak

repression removal of disturbing impulses, thoughts and feelings from conscious awareness

Treatments

Antidepressants

Cognitive therapy - form of psychotherapy that helps a person to change unhelpful or unhealthy thinking habits, feelings and behaviours.

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) - electrical impulse is applied to the brain to induce a seizure psychotherapy

Is thought that ECT-induced seizures interrupt electrochemical messages and ‘reset’ the brain. ACT 1