Psychiatric Signs and Symptoms

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering psychiatric signs, symptoms, disorders of appearance, perception, activity, speech, thought, mood, memory, and cognitive faculties based on the lecture by Prof. Faris Alsaraireh.

Signs

Objective findings observed by the clinician (e.g., psychomotor retardation).

Symptoms

Subjective experiences described by the patient (e.g., depressed mood).

Waxy flexibility

A condition in which the patient's limbs remain for some time in any position in which they are placed, even when postured in a highly unusual or uncomfortable position.

Catatonia

A state seen in patients suffering from phrenic illness who adopt strange postures that they are capable of maintaining for long periods.

Mannerisms

Repeated small movements of a habitual kind that are not in themselves abnormal, such as unusual gestures of the hands or a characteristic way of raising the eyebrows.

Tics

Frequent, repeated contractions of a certain muscle group shown by highly anxious children or adults (e.g., repeatedly pulling the corner of the mouth out of shape or contracting muscles around one eye).

Narcissism

Excessive love of self; a disturbance of character structure common in some immature personalities where a great amount of time and attention is devoted to the care of one's body.

Perception

The end result of brain cell activity brought about by a stimulus acting on special nerve endings in sensory organs (e.g., retina, internal ear, nose, tongue, skin, or internal organs).

Hallucination

A false perception occurring in the absence of stimulation from a sensory organ, which is not under the patient's control and is usually experienced as real.

Auditory hallucination

A false sensory perception where the patient hears unreal voices or peculiar noises, potentially taking the form of commands, accusations, threats, punishment, or reassurance.

Visual hallucination

A false perception where the patient sees visions, usually of clearly defined people or objects, or occasionally flashes of light, geometrical patterns, or unpleasant animals.

Olfactory and Gustatory hallucinations

Hallucinations affecting the senses of smell and taste, respectively, which are often found occurring together in the same patient.

Tactile hallucinations

False perceptions felt on any part of the body, often presenting as bizarre sensations in internal organs or very commonly affecting the genitals.

Illusions

False perceptions that arise in response to a definite external stimulus that is wrongly interpreted (e.g., interpreting the sound of wind blowing leaves as people coming to attack).

Phobia

An irrational or excessive fear of things where the patient realizes the absurdity of the fear but remains powerless in fighting against it.

Retardation (Underactivity)

A slowing down of activity level and bodily function.

Stupor

A state resulting from severe and progressive retardation where the patient becomes completely motionless, remaining fully conscious but staying in one position for hours at a time.

Stereotypy

Repeating the same movements over and over again, such as involving the head or arms, or repeatedly walking around the same pathway in the ward.

Negativism

A behavioral disturbance where patients consistently do the opposite of what they are told to do.

Echopraxia

A behavior where the patient copies with blind obedience any action carried out in front of him.

Echolalia

A behavior where the patient repeats any statement made or told to him.

Ambivalence

When a movement in one direction is immediately countered by a movement in the opposite direction, leaving the patient appearing paralyzed by two opposite desires.

Compulsion

When a person feels compelled to carry out a certain pattern of behavior while knowing fully well that it is absurd and illogical, finding no peace or suffering unbearable tension until it is completed.

Pressured speech

A mild case of rapid or accelerated rate of speech.

Flight of ideas

A severe acceleration of speech occurring when thoughts move so rapidly in the mind that words tumble out at great speed, making lightning changes from one topic to another.

Clang-association

A speech pattern where the patient follows one word with another that bears a superficial resemblance or phonetic similarity to it.

Mutism

A severe disturbance of speech rate where the patient does not talk at all, which may stem from retardation, anxiety, fear, hostility, or racing thoughts.

Aphonia

An inability to speak due to paralysis of function of the vocal cords, occasionally seen in neurotic patients using conversion as an ego defense mechanism.

Aphasia

An inability to speak due to organic damage to the speech center in the brain, also represented by an inability to find the correct words to express thoughts.

Blocking

A sudden and complete interruption of a patient's thoughts, often mid-sentence, leaving a gap lasting seconds or minutes before speaking resumes on the same or a new topic.

Association of ideas

The normal communication process that links up ideas in the mind, including topics that are somewhat different.

Incoherence

A disturbance in the form of speech in which no glimmer of sense can be extracted from the patient's speech.

Verbigeration

Repeating one word or concept over and over.

Word salad

Disconnected words mixed up in an irrational order, producing incomprehensible sentences.

Neologisms

Inventing new words for objects that only the patient understands.

Circumstantiality

Circuitous, indirect speech in which the individual digresses to give unnecessary and often irrelevant details before finally arriving at the main point.

Delusion

A false fixed belief not shared by persons of the same race, age, and standard of education, which cannot be altered by logical argument.

Delusion of grandeur (Grandiosity)

Firmly held ideas of great power, wealth, and influence, such as believing one is a king, God, or connected with famous individuals.

Delusion of persecution (Persecutory delusion)

A false belief that environmental occurrences or actions of others are plots against oneself, or that one is being targeted by powerful organizations like the police, CIA, or FBI.

Delusion of reference

A belief that casual remarks, events, or actions of people (such as a TV news anchor's narration) hold special or secret significance meant specifically for the patient.

Delusion of control (Delusion of passivity)

A belief that one's actions, perceptions, thoughts, emotions, and narrative are under the control of an outside source, such as a spirit, machine, or another person.

Delusion of guilt

A false fixed belief of guilt that is disproportionate in intensity and timeframe, such as a sudden intense guilt arising decades after a minor childhood transgression.

Delusion of hypochondriasis

A fixed conviction concerning the presence of disease or physical abnormality in some part of the patient's own body.

Nihilistic delusion (Delusion of nothingness)

A false belief that one is dead, that bodily organs (e.g., heart, brain) have stopped functioning or been destroyed, or that all money and worldly goods have been lost.

Obsessions

Recurrent and persistent thoughts, impulses, or images that cause distressing emotions (e.g., anxiety, fear, disgust) and are recognized as excessive products of one's own mind.

Depression

A state of sadness of such persistence and severity that it interferes with daily routine and adjustment to life, usually accompanied by anger, guilt, or complete hopelessness and helplessness.

Anhedonia

Loss of interest in and withdrawal from all regular and pleasurable activities, often associated with depression.

Elation

An elevation of mood above the normal level where the patient becomes abnormally cheerful and optimistic in circumstances that do not justify it, mainly seen in mania.

Euphoria

A less marked state of elation characterized simply by an increased sense of personal wellbeing, confidence, and enthusiasm.

Ecstasy

A patient's feeling of complete bliss, often experienced as part of a mystical or religious experience.

Agitation

Anxiety accompanied by severe, definite restlessness.

Panic

The most severe form of anxiety, associated with personal disequilibrium.

Hostility

A feeling of anger that is unhealthily expressed by the patient.

Passive aggressiveness

A pattern of indirectly expressing negative feelings instead of openly addressing them, creating a disconnect between what the person says and does.

Inappropriate (Incongruent) Affect

A mismatch between a patient's emotional expression and their behaviors or the situation, responding to events in a manner strikingly different from normal.

Apathy

A severe and long-lasting flatness of mood where the patient shows no significant emotional response to any type of life experience, reacting equally indifferently to pleasant or unpleasant events.

Lability (Labile Mood)

An extremely rapid fluctuation in feelings, such as over-reacting to a minor stress with deep sadness and then laughing a few minutes later.

Amnesia

A temporary loss of memory characterized by a gradually progressive inability to recall past events and knowledge.

Hypermnesia

An excessively retentive memory of events characterized by an extraordinary wealth of details, commonly seen in manic disorders.

Confabulation

The act of filling in memory gaps by inventing replacement memories that seem suitable to the patient, typically associated with Korsakow's psychosis.

Déjà-Vu

A French term meaning 'already seen', describing an illusion of familiarity with a new experience, which is not infrequent among normal individuals.

Concentration

The ability of an individual to direct attention to elements in his or her present experience.

Distractibility

The failure to be able to devote attention to a specific task.

Confusion

The inability to think as clearly or quickly as normal, characterized by diminished alertness, disorientation, memory disruptions, and impaired thinking.

Disorientation

An altered mental state in which an individual does not know their location, identity, or the current time and date.

Insight

The ability of the patient to understand the true cause and meaning of their situation, such as understanding a set of psychiatric symptoms.

Judgment

The capacity of a patient to make appropriate decisions and appropriately act upon them in social situations.