Study Guide on Personality and Substance Use Disorders

Personality disorders

Enduring maladaptive patterns for relating to the environment and self, exhibited in a range of contexts that cause significant functional impairment or subjective distress.

Cluster A Personality Disorders

Odd thinking and eccentric behavior.

Paranoid personality disorder

Cluster A personality disorder involving pervasive distrust and suspicion of others, such that their motives are interpreted as malevolent.

Schizoid personality disorder

Cluster A personality disorder featuring a pervasive pattern of detachment from social relationships and a restricted range of expression of emotions.

Schizotypal personality disorder

Cluster A personality disorder involving a pervasive pattern of interpersonal deficits featuring acute discomfort with, and reduced capacity for, close relationships, as well as cognitive or perceptual distortions and eccentricities of behavior.

Ideas of reference

The tendency to believe that neutral or random events, objects, or people are specifically directed at or have personal significance for oneself, even when there's no real basis for such a belief.

Cluster B Personality Disorders

Dramatic or erratic behavior.

Antisocial personality disorder

Cluster B personality disorder involving a pervasive pattern of disregard for and violation of the rights of others.

Psychopathy

Non-DSM-5 category similar to antisocial personality disorder but with less emphasis on overt behavior. Indicators include superficial charm, lack of remorse, and other personality characteristics.

Under arousal hypothesis

Cortical arousal is too low. (Cortical arousal increases wakefulness, vigilance, muscle tone, heart rate, and minute ventilation.)

Fearlessness hypothesis

Fail to respond to danger cues.

Borderline personality disorder

Cluster B personality disorder involving a pervasive pattern of instability of interpersonal relationships, self-image, affects, and control over impulses.

Dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT)

Promising treatment for borderline personality disorder that involves exposing the client to stressors in a controlled situation, as well as helping the client regulate emotions and cope with stressors that might trigger suicidal behavior.

Histrionic personality disorder

Cluster B personality disorder involving a pervasive pattern of excessive emotionality and attention seeking.

Narcissistic personality disorder

Cluster B personality disorder involving a pervasive pattern of grandiosity in fantasy or behavior, need for admiration, and lack of empathy.

Cluster C Personality Disorders

Severe anxiety and fear.

Avoidant personality disorder

Cluster C personality disorder featuring a pervasive pattern of social inhibition, feelings of inadequacy, and hypersensitivity to criticism.

Dependent personality disorder

Cluster C personality disorder characterized by a person's pervasive and excessive need to be taken care of, a condition that leads to submissive and clinging behavior and fears of separation.

Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder

Cluster C personality disorder featuring a pervasive pattern of preoccupation with orderliness, perfectionism, and mental and interpersonal control at the expense of flexibility, openness, and efficiency.

Psychoactive substances

Substances, such as drugs, that alter mood or behavior.

Substance use

The ingestion of psychoactive substances in moderate amounts that does not significantly interfere with social, educational, or occupational functioning.

Substance intoxication

The psychological reaction to ingested substances, such as drunkenness or getting high. Variables that interact include the type of drug taken, the amount ingested, and the individual biological reaction.

Impaired judgment

A condition characterized by mood changes and lowered motor ability, including problems walking or talking.

Substance abuse

Pattern of psychoactive substance use leading to significant distress or impairment in social and occupational roles and in hazardous situations.

Substance-related and addictive disorders

Range of problems associated with the use and abuse of drugs such as alcohol, cocaine, heroin, and other substances that alter the way people think, feel, and behave.

Substance dependence

Maladaptive pattern of substance use characterized by the need for increased amounts to achieve the desired effect, negative physical effects when the substance is withdrawn, unsuccessful efforts to control its use, and substantial effort expended to seek it or recover from its effects.

Physiological dependence

The use of increasingly greater amounts of a drug to experience the same effect (tolerance) and a negative physical response when the substance is no longer ingested (withdrawal).

Tolerance

Need for increased amounts of a substance to achieve the desired effect, and a diminished effect with continued use of the same amount.

Withdrawal

Severely negative physiological reaction to the removal of a psychoactive substance, which can be alleviated by the same or a similar substance.

Depressants

Psychoactive substances that result in behavioral sedation, including alcohol and the sedative, hypnotic, and anxiolytic drugs.

Alcohol

By-product of the fermentation of yeasts, sugar, and water; the most commonly used and abused depressant substance.

Alcohol-related disorders

Cognitive, biological, behavioral, and social problems associated with alcohol use and abuse.

Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome

Organic brain syndrome resulting from prolonged heavy alcohol use, involving confusion, unintelligible speech, and loss of motor coordination.

Withdrawal delirium (delirium tremens/DTs)

Frightening hallucinations and body tremors that result when a heavy drinker withdraws from alcohol.

Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS)

Pattern of problems including learning difficulties, behavior deficits, and characteristic physical flaws, resulting from heavy drinking by the victim's mother during pregnancy.

Barbiturates

Sedative (and addictive) drugs including Amytal, Seconal, and Nembutal, used as sleep aids.

Benzodiazepines

Antianxiety drugs, including Valium, Xanax, Dalmane, and Halcion, used to treat insomnia and effective against anxiety.

Stimulants

Any psychoactive substances that elevate mood, activity, and alertness, including amphetamines, caffeine, cocaine, and nicotine.

Amphetamine

A stimulant medication used to treat hypersomnia by keeping the person awake during the day, and to treat narcolepsy.

Amphetamine use disorders

Severe intoxication or overdose through the use of amphetamines, including significant behavioral impairments and physiological symptoms.

Cocaine

Derivative of cocoa leaves used medically as a local anesthetic and narcotic; often a substance of abuse.

Cocaine use disorders

Severe intoxication or overdose through the use of cocaine, including significant behavioral impairments and physiological symptoms.

Nicotine

A toxic and addictive substance found in tobacco leaves.

Nicotine patch

Patch placed on the skin that delivers nicotine to smokers without the carcinogens in cigarette smoke.

Nicotine use disorders

When you need nicotine and can't stop using it.

Tobacco-related disorders

Cognitive, biological, behavioral, and social problems associated with the use and abuse of nicotine.

Caffeine use disorders

Cognitive, biological, behavioral, and social problems associated with the use and abuse of caffeine.

Opiates

Addictive psychoactive substances such as heroin, opium, and morphine that cause temporary euphoria and analgesia (pain reduction).

Opioid-related disorders

Severe intoxication or overdose through the use of opiates, which have a narcotic effect.

Cannabis (Cannabis sativa)

Dried flowers and leaves of the hemp plant; a hallucinogen that is the most widely used illegal substance.

Cannabis use disorders

Problematic pattern of cannabis use leading to clinically significant impairment or distress.

Hallucinogen

Any psychoactive substance, such as LSD or marijuana, that can produce delusions, hallucinations, paranoia, and altered sensory perception.

Hallucinogen use disorders

Cognitive, biological, behavioral, and social problems associated with the use and abuse of hallucinogenic substances.

LSD (d-lysergic acid diethylamide)

Most common hallucinogenic drug; a synthetic version of the grain fungus ergot.

Other commonly misused substances

Other substances (such as inhalants, anabolic steroids, and other over-the-counter and prescription medications) that produce psychoactive effects and that are misused but do not fit neatly into other categories.

Biological causes of substance use disorders

Includes genetic tendency, pleasure pathway, rate of metabolism, and comorbid disorders.

Psychological causes of substance use disorders

Includes positive reinforcement (feeling pleasure) and negative reinforcement (feeling relief from withdrawal).

Social and cultural causes of substance use disorders

Includes influence of media, parents, and peers.

Agonist substitution

Replacement of a drug on which a person is dependent with one that has a similar chemical makeup, an agonist; used as a treatment for substance dependence.

Antagonist drugs

Medications that block or counteract the effects of psychoactive drugs.

Inpatient vs outpatient treatment

Refers to the setting in which treatment is provided for substance use disorders.

Support programs

Programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and Narcotics Anonymous (NA) that provide support for individuals with substance use disorders.

Schizophrenia

Devastating psychotic disorder that may involve characteristic disturbances in thinking (delusions), perception (hallucinations), speech, emotions, and behavior.

Dementia praecox

Latin term meaning 'premature loss of mind,' an early label for what is now called schizophrenia, emphasizing the disorder's frequent appearance during adolescence.

dementia preacox

an outdated term that was historically used to describe what we now refer to as schizophrenia. Called démence précoce in France.

Associative splitting

Separation among basic functions of human personality (for example, cognition, emotion, and perception) seen by some as the defining characteristic of schizophrenia.

Psychotic behavior

Severe psychological disorder category characterized by hallucinations and loss of contact with reality.

Positive symptoms (of schizophrenia)

Symptoms of schizophrenia that generally refer to symptoms around distorted reality such as hallucinations and delusions.

Delusion

A false belief or judgment about external reality, held despite incontrovertible evidence to the contrary, occurring especially in mental conditions.

Paranoia

People's irrational beliefs that they are especially important (delusions of grandeur) or that other people are seeking to do them harm.

Delusions of persecution

(believing that they are someone close to them will be attacked or deceived)

Hallucination

A sight, sound, smell, taste, or touch that a person believes to be real but is not real.

Negative symptoms (of schizophrenia)

Symptoms of schizophrenia that involve deficits in normal behavior in such areas as speech, blunted affect (or lack of emotional reactivity), and motivation.

Avolition

(lack of motivation) Apathy, or the inability to initiate or persist in important activities.

Alogia

(lack of regular speech) Deficiency in the amount or content of speech, a disturbance often seen in people with schizophrenia.

Anhedonia

(lack of pleasure) Inability to experience pleasure, associated with some mood and schizophrenic disorders.

Asociality

Lack of interest in social interactions.

Flat affect

Apparently emotionless demeanor (including toneless speech and vacant gaze) when a reaction would be expected in schizophrenia

Disorganized symptoms (of schizophrenia)

Symptoms of schizophrenia that include rambling speech, erratic behavior, and inappropriate affect (for example, smiling when you are upset).

Inappropriate affect

Emotional displays that are improper for the situation.

Disorganized speech

Style of talking often seen in people with schizophrenia, involving incoherence and a lack of typical logic patterns.

Catatonia

Disorder of movement involving immobility or excited agitation. Sometimes accompanies psychotic disorders or mood disorders.

Catatonic immobility

Disturbance of motor behavior in which the person remains motionless, sometimes in an awkward posture, for extended periods.

Schizophreniform disorder

Psychotic disorder involving the symptoms of schizophrenia but lasting less than 6 months.

Schizoaffective disorder

Psychotic disorder featuring symptoms of both schizophrenia and major mood disorder.

Delusional disorder

Psychotic disorder featuring a persistent belief contrary to reality (delusion) but no other symptoms of schizophrenia.

Substance-induced psychotic disorder

Psychosis caused by the ingestion of medications, psychoactive drugs, or toxins.

Psychotic disorder associated with another medical condition

Condition that is characterized by hallucinations or delusions and that is the direct result of another physiological disorder, such as stroke or brain tumor.

Brief psychotic disorder

Psychotic disturbance involving delusions, hallucinations, or disorganized speech or behavior but lasting less than 1 month; often occurs in reaction to a stressor.

Attenuated psychosis syndrome

Disorder involving the onset of psychotic symptoms such as hallucinations and delusions, which puts a person at high risk for schizophrenia; designated for further study by DSM-5.

Prodromal stage

refers to the early warning phase of a mental illness, particularly schizophrenia and related psychotic disorders. he DSM-5 does not classify the prodrome as a formal diagnosis (except under conditions like Attenuated Psychosis Syndrome but it is characterized by subtle changes in thoughts, behavior, and functioning that may precede the onset of more severe symptoms.

Morton Jellinek's four stages of alcoholism

Stages identified in the progression of alcoholism, featuring heavy drinking but with few outward signs of a problem.

Genetic Influences in Schizophrenia

Factors that contribute to schizophrenia based on genetic predisposition.

Twin studies

Research method used to understand the genetic influences on schizophrenia by comparing twins.

Endophenotyping

A method to identify the underlying genetic mechanisms of schizophrenia.

Neurobiological Influences in Schizophrenia

Biological factors that contribute to the development of schizophrenia.

Dopamine hypothesis

Theory suggesting that an imbalance of dopamine in the brain is linked to schizophrenia.

Hypofrontality

Reduced activity in the frontal lobes of the brain associated with schizophrenia.

Psychological Influences in Schizophrenia

Psychological factors that may contribute to the onset of schizophrenia.

Double bind communication

An obsolete theory that suggests conflicting messages can cause schizophrenia.