Mental Health Need to Know Terms

Vocabulary practice cards for key mental health terms, affect descriptions, types of delusions, extrapyramidal symptoms, and types of hallucinations.

Affect

The outward expression of emotion.

Blunted Affect

Decreased outward display of emotion.

Bright Affect

Smiling, displaying positive attitude.

Flat Affect

Absent or minimally expressive.

Labile Affect

Rapid changes in emotions.

Akathisia

Inability to sit still.

Akinesia

Loss of ability to move muscles voluntarily.

Alogia

Inability or difficulty in speaking.

Anhedonia

Loss of interest in activities, decreased ability to feel pleasure.

Apathy

Showing little emotional expression, or diminished interest.

Catatonia

State of immobility or stupor.

Delusions

Belief in something that isn’t true or based in reality.

Grandiose Delusions

False belief in one’s own greatness.

Nihilistic Delusions

Belief that one is dead or that the real world doesn’t exist.

Persecutory Delusions

Belief that others are out to harm, such as the government.

Delusions of Reference

Belief that external events apply to one’s self when they do not.

Echolalia

Repetition or echoing of words that someone else has said.

Euphoria

Feeling or sense of intense excitement or happiness.

Extrapyramidal symptoms

Abnormal movements occurring as a side effect of certain medications.

Dystonia

Involuntary muscle spasms, especially od head and neck muscles.

Pseudoparkinsonism

Slowed movements, rigidity, tremor.

Flight of ideas

Rapid jumping between ideas and thoughts.

Grandiosity

Exaggerated belief of self-importance or superiority.

Hallucinations

Perception of a sensory experience that seems real but is created by the mind.

Auditory Hallucinations

Voices talking to each other or telling you what to do.

Visual Hallucinations

Seeing things other don’t or seeing things move in ways they usually don’t.

Tactile Hallucinations

Feeling of movement on skin, such as tickling or insects crawling.

Command Hallucinations

Auditory hallucination that instructs someone to act in specific ways.

Mood lability

Rapid shifts in moods occurring in bipolar disorder.

Tardive dyskinesia

Side effect from medications causing repetitive, jerking movements in the face, neck and tongue.