Psychiatric Nursing Review: Terminology, Communication, Disorders, and Defense Mechanisms

Comprehensive vocabulary review flashcards covering key psychiatric terminology, therapeutic and non-therapeutic communication techniques, common mental disorders and their drugs of choice, and psychological defense mechanisms.

Affect

Emotional expression.

Agnosia

Inability to recognize objects or people.

Agitation

Restlessness or nervous excitement

Alexithymia

Difficulty in identifying emotions.

Amnesia

Memory loss

Anhedonia

Inability to feel pleasure.

Anxiety

Feeling of worry or fear

Apathy

Lack of interest or emotion

Apraxia

Inability to perform learned motor tasks.

Apraxia

Inability to perform learned motor skills

Aripiprazole

Antipsychotic medication

Ataxia

Lack of coordination

Avolition

Lack of motivation to complete tasks.

Bipolar Disorder

Mood disorder with extreme mood swings

Blunted Affect

Reduced emotional expression

Catatonia

Abnormal motor behavior, often immobility.

Cerebral Palsy

A group of disorders affecting motor control

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

Therapy focusing on changing negative thoughts

Compulsion

Repetitive behavior driven by an urge

Confabulation

Fabricating memories without intent to deceive.

Confusion

Disorientation in time, place, or identity

Consciousness

Awareness of oneself and the environment

Conversion Disorder

Neurological symptoms without a medical cause.

Delusion

False belief, often fixed and resistant to reasoning.

Depersonalization

Feeling detached from oneself.

Depression

Persistent sadness and lack of interest

Derealization

Feeling that the world around is unreal.

Dissociation

Disconnect between thoughts, identity, and memory

Dysthymia

Persistent mild depression

Echolalia

Repeating others' words or phrases.

Euphoria

Extreme feelings of happiness or well-being

Extrapyramidal Symptoms (EPS)

Movement disorders caused by antipsychotics.

Flat Affect

No emotional expression

Hallucination

Perception of something that isn't there

Harm Reduction

Approach focusing on reducing negative consequences of behaviors

Hyperactivity

Excessive physical movement or restlessness

Hypervigilance

Being overly alert to potential threats

Hypomania

Mild form of mania

Neurosis

Mental disorders causing muscle rigidity and fever

Hypothesis

Proposed explanation for a phenomenon

Illusions

Misperceptions of real external stimuli

Impulsivity

Acting without thinking of consequences

Insight

Awareness of one's own mental health condition

Intellectual Disability

Below-average cognitive ability

Intervention

Action taken to improve a patient's condition

Intrusive Thoughts

Unwanted, distressing thoughts

Labile Affect

Rapid changes in emotional expression

Lethargy

Extreme tiredness or lack of energy

Mania

Period of abnormally elevated mood and energy

Mental Health

Emotional, psychological, and social well-being

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

Recurrent, intrusive thoughts and behaviors

Olfactory Hallucination

Smelling something that isn't present

Neuroleptic Malignant Syndrome (NMS)

Serious reaction to antipsychotics causing muscle rigidity and fever.

Paranoia

Irrational distrust to others

Paraphrenia

Delusional disorder with paranoid themes

Parkinsonism

Symptoms similar to Parkinson's disease (e.g. tremors)

Preseveration

Repetition of a response or behavior

Phobia

Irrational fear of a specific object or situation

Pica

Eating non-food items

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Anxiety disorder following traumatic events

Preoccupation

Obsessive thinking about a subject

Pressured Speech

Rapid and difficult-to-understand speech

Psychosis

Lost of touch with reality

Psychotherapy

Treatment for emotional problems through talking

Rage

Extreme anger

Rationalization

Justifying behavior with logical reasons

Reality Testing

Ability to distinguish between internal thoughts annd external reality

Regression

Reverting to an earlier stage of development

Relapse

Return of symptoms after improvement

Repetition Compulsion

Repeated behaviors or emotions tied to past trauma

Resilience

Ability to recover from adversity

SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder)

Depression occurring seasonally

Schizophrenia

Chronic mental disorder with symptoms like delusions and hallucinations

Self-Esteem

One's sense of self-worth

Somatization

Physical symptoms without a medical cause

Splitting

Seeing things as all good or all bad

Stigma

Negative perception of mental illness

Suicidal Ideation

Thoughts of suicide

Symptom

Any indication of a disease or disorder

Tachycardia

Fast heart rate

Tardive Dyskinesia

Involuntary movements caused by long-term antipsychotic use.

Thought Blocking

Sudden interruption of speech due to thoughts stopping.

Thought Disorder

Inability to think in a coherent, logical manner

Tourette Syndrome

Neurological disorder characterized by tics and involuntary movements

Trauma

Emotional, psychological, or physical injury

Trichotillomania

Compulsive hair pulling.

Tuning Out

Mentally disengaging from a situation

Verbal Abuse

Harmful language directed at another

Withdrawal

Physical or psychological symptoms after discontinuing substances

Worry

Excessive anxiety about future events

Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale

Tool for assessing OCD severity

Dementia

Decline in memory and cognitive abilities

Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT)

Treatment involving electric currents to the brain

Empathy

Understanding and sharing another person's feelings

Endorphins

Chemicals in the brain that promote happiness

Enuresis

Involuntary urination (bedwetting)

Episode

Occurring in intervals

Excoriation Disorder

Skin picking disorder

Exposure Therapy

Treatment for phobias by gradual exposure to feared object

False Memory

Memory of events that never occurred