Mental Health Nursing: Organic, Anxiety, Somatic, and Mood Disorders

Vocabulary practice flashcards defining core clinical terms, neurocognitive disorders, anxiety syndromes, mood disorders, psychopharmacological principles, and suicide intervention strategies.

Etiological Disorders (Organic Disorders)

Mental disorders that occur as the direct result or consequence of a medical condition or physical cause (such as trauma to the brain, high fever, brain tumor, AIDS, or substance abuse) and are diagnosed via patient history, physical examination, and laboratory findings.

Delirium

An acute, sudden-onset, and reversible disturbance of cognitive ability and awareness characterized by confusion, sleep disturbances, restlessness, anxiety, fear, delusions, and hallucinations, resulting from an identifiable, treatable physical cause.

Dementia

A chronic mental disorder involving multiple progressive cognitive deficits, primarily memory impairment accompanied by deficits in language, motor execution, sensory recognition, or executive function.

Aphasia

A deterioration of language function to the point where the individual can no longer speak.

Echolalia

The involuntary parroting or echoing of words, phrases, or sounds spoken by another person.

Palilalia

The repetitive, pathological echoing or repetition of one's own words or sounds.

Apraxia

The impaired ability to execute purposeful motor activities despite having intact motor strength and physical capacity.

Agnosia

The inability to recognize, identify, or name familiar objects despite having intact sensory abilities.

Disturbed Executive Functioning

An impaired ability to think abstractly and to plan, initiate, monitor, and terminate complex goal-directed behaviors.

Sundowners Syndrome

Also known as nocturnal delirium, a condition seen in cognitive impairment characterized by periods of extreme agitation, confusion, and a tendency to wander during the late afternoon or early evening.

Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease

A rare, rapid-onset, fatal brain disorder believed to be caused by an infectious agent or virus, characterized histologically by an overgrowth of glia.

Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) Dementia

Brain degeneration caused by repeated head injuries that over time degrades brain function sufficiently to interfere with normal daily and occupational activities.

Amyloid Plaques

Abnormal extracellular clusters composed of beta-amyloid protein that accumulate in and around brain cells, disrupting neuronal communication in Alzheimer's disease.

Neurofibrillary Tangles

Abnormally twisted strands of tau protein that accumulate within neurons, compromising cellular transport and contributing to neuronal death in Alzheimer's disease.

Cholinesterase Inhibitors

A class of medications for Alzheimer's disease (including Donepezil, Rivastigmine, and Galantamine) that inhibit the enzyme responsible for breaking down acetylcholine, started low and titrated slowly.

Validation Therapy (Naomi Feil)

A communication technique used for individuals with dementia that respects and validates their feelings and personal reality rather than arguing or attempting factual reorientation.

Anxiety

A state in which an individual or group experiences feelings of uneasiness or apprehension along with activation of the autonomic nervous system in response to a vague, non-specific threat.

Crisis Phase of Anxiety

The acute 'fight or flight' stage of anxiety during which epinephrine and norepinephrine are released from the adrenal glands, blood vessels constrict, and blood pressure and heart rate rise.

Exhaustion Phase of Anxiety

The final stage of unmitigated severe stress occurring when adaptation fails, marked by an impaired immune system, increased lymph node size, potential cardiac or renal failure, and possible death.

Automatic Relief Behaviors

Unconscious motor activities or habits that a patient may not be aware of (such as pen clicking, tapping, or leg bouncing) executed to alleviate anxious tension.

Free-Floating Anxiety

A generalized, persistent feeling of anxiety where the individual is unable to connect the apprehension to any specific cause or stimulus.

Anticipatory Anxiety

A form of anxiety that develops in advance of an upcoming situation, event, or stressor.

Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)

A disorder characterized by excessive, uncontrollable chronic worry and high anxiety present at least half the time for a minimum duration of 6 months.

Panic Disorder

An anxiety disorder featuring recurrent, rapid, escalating episodes of intense anxiety lasting $15-30$ minutes, accompanied by extreme fear, physiological distress, and feelings of dread or choking.

Agoraphobia

An intense, irrational fear of being in open, public, or crowded spaces where escape might be difficult or embarrassing in the event of panic symptoms.

Obsessions

Recurrent, intrusive, persistent, and inappropriate thoughts or impulses (such as fear of contamination or violent images) that produce marked anxiety and disturb daily functioning.

Compulsions

Repetitive, ritualized behaviors or mental acts (such as checking, cleaning, or ordering) that an individual feels driven to perform to reduce the anxiety generated by an obsession.

Acute Stress Disorder

A traumatic stress reaction in which symptoms develop within 1 month following exposure to trauma and last for less than 4 weeks.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

A psychiatric disorder emerging after exposure to a traumatic event involving actual or threatened death/injury (often presenting around 3 months post-event), characterized by intrusive reruns, emotional numbing, avoidance, and hypervigilance.

Conversion Disorder

A somatic disorder characterized by the development of chronic neurological or sensory-motor physical symptoms without an identifiable physiological or organic explanation.

Cyberchondriasis

A modern form of hypochondriasis in which an individual compulsively uses internet health information to self-diagnose minor symptoms into catastrophic illnesses.

Factitious Disorder Imposed on Another

A condition previously designated as Munchausen syndrome by proxy, in which a person deliberately produces, fabricates, or exaggerates physical or psychological symptoms in another individual.

Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE)

A standardized clinical evaluation scoring up to $30$ points to assess orientation, registration, attention/calculation, recall, and language, where scores of $24-30$ represent normal cognition, $18-23$ represent moderate impairment, and $0-17$ represent marked cognitive impairment.

Kindling

The hypothesis proposing that recurrent severe stress alters neurotransmitter function, progressively lowering the threshold required to trigger subsequent mood episodes.

Euthymia

A state of normal, calm, and balanced mood, free from depressive or manic disturbances.

Euphoria

A pathologically exaggerated, elevated feeling of well-being, grandiosity, and optimism characteristic of manic states.

Anhedonia

The total loss of interest or pleasure in all or almost all activities that were once considered rewarding or enjoyable.

Dysthymic Disorder

A chronic, less severe form of depression characterized by persistent depressive symptoms lasting for extended durations without meeting full criteria for major depressive episodes.

Bipolar I Disorder

A cyclical mood disorder characterized predominantly by episodes of full-blown mania that alternate with periods of depression.

Bipolar II Disorder

A cyclical mood disorder characterized predominantly by major depressive episodes accompanied by periods of hypomania rather than full mania.

Hypomania

A mild-to-moderate level of mania characterized by elevated mood, hyperactivity, and accelerated thinking that is not severe enough to cause marked social disruption or require hospitalization.

Lithium

A metallic salt mood stabilizer excreted unchanged by the kidneys that regulates manic swings, requiring maintenance serum concentrations between $0.6-1.2\,\text{mEq/L}$ ($1.0-1.5\,\text{mEq/L}$ in acute mania) with strict fluid and sodium monitoring.

Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT)

A biomedical treatment for refractory major depression that delivers brief electrical currents to the brain to induce a controlled generalized seizure, usually administered $3$ times weekly for $3-4$ weeks.

Suicidal Ideation

Passive or active thoughts, fantasies, or contemplation of ending one's own life.

Suicidal Gesture

A non-lethal, self-destructive action carried out without the intention of dying, often serving as a cry for help or communication of severe distress.

No-Suicide Contract

A collaborative verbal or written commitment made between a patient and a nurse or clinician stating that the patient will not harm themselves and will contact staff immediately if suicidal impulses emerge.