Mood Disorders and Suicide

Flashcards of key vocabulary and definitions from the lecture notes.

Mood Disorders

Group of disorders involving severe and enduring disturbances in emotionality ranging from elation to severe depression.

Mania

Extreme pleasure in every activity; elevation in mood.

Hypomania

Less severe or milder version of a manic episode that does not cause marked impairment in social or occupational functioning.

Unipolar Mood Disorder

Individuals who suffer either depression or mania; either of the two.

Unipolar Depression

Have no history of mania, can return to a normal or nearly normal mood when their depression lifts.

Major Depressive Episode

Most common and severe experience of depression, including feelings of worthlessness, disturbances in bodily activities such as sleep, loss of interest, and inability to experience pleasure.

Persistent Depressive Disorder (Dysthymia)

Mood disorder involving persistently depressed mood, present for at least 2 years with no absence of symptoms for more than 2 months.

Double Depression

Suffering from both MDD and PDD with fewer symptoms.

Hallucination

Seeing or hearing things that aren’t there.

Delusion

Strongly held but inaccurate beliefs.

Catalepsy

Motor movement disturbance seen in people with some psychoses and mood disorders in which body postures are waxy and can be sculpted to remain fixed for log periods.

Seasonal Affective Disorder

Mood disorder involving a cycling of episodes corresponding to the reasons of the year, typically with depression occurring during the winter.

Integrated Grief

Grief that evolves from acute grief into a condition in which the individual accepts the finality of a death and adjusts to the loss.

Complicated Grief

Grief characterized by debilitating feelings of loss and emotions so painful that a person has trouble resuming a normal life.

Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder

Emotional problems that can occur during the premenstrual phase of the reproductive cycle of a woman.

Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder

Condition in which a child has chronic negative moods such as anger without any accompanying mania.

Bipolar 1 Disorder

Alternation of major depressive episodes with full manic episodes.

Bipolar II Disorder

Alternation of major depressive episodes with hypomanic episodes.

Cyclothymic Disorder

Milder but chronic version of Bipolar Disorder 1.

Rapid-Cycling Specifier

An individual who experiences at least four manic or depressive episodes within a year; severe variety of bipolar disorder that does not respond well to standard treatments.

Neurohormones

Hormones that affect the brain.

Learned Helplessness Theory

Anxiety is the first response to stressful situations.

Depressive Cognitive Triad

Thinking errors in depressed people negatively focused in three areas: themselves, their immediate world, and their future.

Mood Stabilizing Drug

A medication used in the treatment of mood disorders, effective in preventing and treating pathological shifts in mood.

Electroconvulsive Therapy

Biological treatment for severe, chronic depression involving the application of electrical impulses through the brain to produce seizures.

Cognitive Therapy

Altering negative beliefs and replacing them with more positive beliefs and attitudes.

Interpersonal Psychotherapy

Brief treatment approach that emphasizes resolution of interpersonal problems and stressors.

Maintenance Treatment

Combination of psychosocial treatment and medication, designed to prevent relapse following therapy.

Suicidal Ideation

Thinking seriously about suicide.

Suicidal Plans

Formulation of a specific method for killing oneself.

Suicidal Attempt

The survives from attempts.

Death Seekers

Clearly intend to end their lives at the time they attempt suicide.

Death Initiators

Clearly intent to end their lives but they are simply hastening or slowing the process.

Death Ignorers

Do not believe that their self-inflicted death will mean the end of their existence.

Death Darers

Experience mixed feelings about their intent to die.

Psychological Autopsy

Postmortem psychological profile of a suicide victim constructed from interviews with people who knew the person before death.