Mental Health Nursing Vocabulary

A collection of vocabulary flashcards covering the key concepts from the Mental Health Nursing Final Exam study guide, including grief, legal/ethical concepts, developmental theories, and various psychological disorders.

Grief

The emotional process of coping with a loss, involving sadness and despondency centered on the loss of anything significant to the individual.

Bereavement

The natural, healthy, and healing process and expected reaction of grief and sadness that emerges in response to any significant loss.

Anticipatory grief

Grief seen in individuals and families who are expecting a major loss in the near future, allowing for a time of preparation and closure.

Conventional grief

The grief primarily associated with what is experienced following a loss, which may take days, weeks, or years to process.

Dysfunctional grief

A failure to complete the grieving process and cope successfully with a loss, leading to a prolonged and intensified reaction.

Chronic sorrow

A situation where grief resurfaces at times but never fully goes away, such as with parents of a developmentally disabled child.

Unresolved grief

A situation where the grief process is incomplete and life is burdened with maladaptive symptoms continuing months after the loss.

Magical thinking

A cognitive state, often in preschoolers, where the individual believes their ideas, thoughts, actions, or words can cause a real event to happen.

Ethics

A set of principles or values that guides behavior, helps determine right or wrong in a situation, and determines how activities should be conducted.

Informed consent

Permission given to undergo a specific procedure or treatment after the client is informed about the procedure, risks, and benefits.

Confidentiality

The client’s right to prevent written or verbal communications from being disclosed to outside parties without authorization.

Durable power of attorney for health care

A legal designation that allows a person to choose another individual to make health care decisions in the event they are unable to do so.

OBRA (Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act)

Legislation that protects nursing home residents, prevents unnecessary restraints, and ensures quality care.

Id

The component of the psyche present at birth that operates on the pleasure principle and demands instant gratification of drives like hunger and aggression.

Ego

The conscious self that operates on the reality principle, developing in response to the id to form sensations, feelings, adjustments, and defenses.

Superego

Often referred to as the conscience, it controls and regulates instinctive urges whose expression would be socially unacceptable.

Transference

The unconscious transfer of feelings and attitudes from a person or situation in one’s past to a person or situation in the present.

Countertransference

The response elicited in the person (such as a nurse or therapist) who is receiving transferred feelings or communications from a client.

Sublimation

An adaptive defense mechanism where a socially acceptable behavior replaces one that is not acceptable or attainable, such as rechanneling aggression into sports.

Regression

A defense mechanism involving a return to an earlier, more comfortable, and less stressful stage of behavior.

Reaction formation

A conscious attempt to make up for unacceptable feelings by replacing them with the opposite feelings or beliefs.

Undoing

A defense mechanism where a positive action is initiated to conceal a negative action or neutralize a previously unacceptable wish.

Fiduciary abuse

A form of abuse involving the financial exploitation of an individual.

Therapeutic communication

A planned and guided interaction between the nurse and client with the specific goal of learning about the client and their problem.

Reflection (Parroting)

A communication technique that paraphrases the message the client has conveyed to the nurse to show perception of content and feeling.

Bipolar disorder

A disorder characterized by atypical and erratic shifts in mood, energy, activity, behavior, sleep, and cognition, ranging from mania to depression.

Hypomania

A state of mild to moderate mania that lasts for at least $\text{4 days}$ without psychotic symptoms like delusions or hallucinations.

Rapid cycling

A term used when an individual experiences $\text{4}$ or more episodes of mania or depression within a year.

Labile

Describing rapid shifts in mood in a short period of time, such as alternating from euphoria to dysphoria and irritability.

Grandiosity

A larger-than-reality self-esteem or feelings where an individual thinks they have more wealth or intelligence than they really do.

Delusions of grandeur

False or outrageous beliefs about oneself, such as stating one has discovered a cure for cancer or is the king of a country.

Flight of ideas

A constant shift in attention from one thought to another, often seen in manic states.

Clang associations

Words strung together in rhyming phrases or that have no connected meaning.

EPS (Extrapyramidal Symptoms)

Drug-induced movement disorders, including acute dystonia and parkinsonism, often caused by high-potency antipsychotic medications.

Tardive Dyskinesia (TD)

A serious adverse reaction to antipsychotic medication characterized by involuntary movements.

Splitting

A characteristic of borderline personality disorder where the world is seen in terms of black or white, love or hate, with no neutral ground.

Self-mutilation

An intentional act of inflicting bodily injury to oneself without intent to die, used as a coping mechanism to distract from emotional pain.

Intoxication

A state where an individual’s physical or mental status is affected or diminished due to the consumption of a substance like alcohol or drugs.

Tolerance

The condition where the brain and body adapt to repeated doses of a substance, requiring greater amounts to obtain the same effect.

Withdrawal

Symptoms that occur as blood or tissue concentrations of a substance decline in an individual who has developed a physical dependence.

Enabling

The pattern of either consciously or unconsciously helping a maladaptive behavior, such as substance use, to continue.

Anorexia nervosa

An eating disorder characterized by calorie restriction, distorted body image, and an extreme fear of gaining weight.

Amenorrhea

The absence of menstrual periods, often resulting from low hormone levels in individuals with eating disorders.