| Term |
Definition |
| Agoraphobia |
An intense fear of being in a situation from which escape is not possible or in which help would not be available if one experienced overwhelming anxiety or a panic attack. |
| Anxiety disorders |
Psychological disorders characterizied by frequent fearful thoughts about what might happen in the future |
| Biopolar disorder |
A mood disorder in which manic episodes alternate with periods of depression, usually with relatively normal periods in between. |
| Catatonic schizophrenia |
A type of schizophrenia characterized by complete stillness or stupor or great excitment and agitation; patients may assume an unusual posture and remain in it for long periods of time. |
| Complusion |
A persistent, irresistible, and irrational urge to perform an act or ritual repeatedly |
| Conversion disorder |
A somatoform disorder in which a person suffers a loss of motor or sensory functioning in some part of the body; the loss has no physical cause but solves some psychological problem |
| Delusions |
A false belief, not generally shared by others in the culture |
| Delusions of grandeur |
A false belief that one is a famous person or a powerful or important person who has some great knowledge, ability, or authority |
| Delusions of persecution |
A false belief that some person or agency is trying in some way to harm one |
| Disoragnized schizophrenia |
The most serious type of schizophrenia, marked by extreme social withdrawal, hallucinations, delusions, silliness, inappropriate laughter, grotesque mannerisms. and other bizarre behavior |
| Dissociative amnesia |
A dissociative disorder in which there is a complete or partial loss of the ability to recall personal information or identify past experience |
| Dissociative disorders |
Disorders in which, under unbearable stress, consciousness becomes dissociated from a person's identity or her or his memories of important personal events, or both |
| Dissociative fugue |
A dissociative disorder in which one has a complete loss of memory of one's entire identity, travels away from home, and may assume a new identity |
| Dissociative identity disorder |
A dissociative disorder in which two or more distinct, unique personalities occur in the same person, and there is severe memory disruption concerning personal information about the other personalities. |
| DSM-IV-TR |
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Edition, Text Revision; a manual published by the American Psychiatric Association which describes the criteria used to classify and diagnose mental disorders. |
| Gender indentity disorder |
Sexual disorder characterized by a problem accpeting one's identity as male or female |
| Generalized anxiety disorder |
An anxiety disorder in which people experience chronic, excessive worry for 6 months or more |
| Hallucination |
An imaginary sensation |
| Hypochondriasis |
A somatoform disorder in which persons are preoccuiped with their health and fear that their physical symptoms are a sign of some serious disease, despite reassurance from doctors to the contrary. |
| Major depressive disorder |
A mood disorder marked by feelings of great sadness, despair, and hopelessness as well as the loss of the ability to experience pleasure. |
| Manic episode |
A period of excessive euphoria, inflatened self-esteem, wild optimism, and hyperactivity, often accompanied by delusions of gandeur and by hostility if activity is blocked |
| Mood disorders |
Disorders characterized by extreme and unwarranted disturbances in emotion or mood |
| Obsession |
A persistent, involuntary thought image, or impulse that invades consciousness and causes great distress |
| Obsessive-complusive disorder |
An anxiety disorder in which a person suffers from recurrent obsessions and/or complusions |
| Panic attack |
An episode of overwhelming anxiety fear, or terror |
| Panic disorder |
An anxiety disorder in which a person experience recurring, unpredictable episodes or overwhelming anxiety, fear, or terror |
| Paranoid schizophrenia |
A type of schizophrenia characterized by delusions of grandeur of persecution |
| Paraphilias |
Sexual disorders in which recurrent sexual urges, fantasies, or behavior involves nonhuman objects, children, other nonconsenting persons, or the suffering or humiliation of the individual or his or her partner. |
| Personality disorder |
A long-standing, inflexible, maladaptive pattern of behaving and relating to others, which usually begins in early childhood or abolesence |
| Phobia |
A persistent, irrational fear of some specific object, situation, or activity that poses little or no real danger |
| Psychological disorders |
Mental processes and/ or behavior patterns that causes emotional distress and/ or substantial impairment in functioning |
| Psychosis |
A condition characterized by loss of contact with reality |
| Scizophrenia |
A severe psychological disorder characterized by loss of contact with reality, hallucinations, delusions, inappropriate or flat affect, some disturbance in thinking, social withdrawal, and/ or other bizarre behavior |
| Sexual disorder |
Disorders with a sexual basis that are destructive, guilt- or anxiety-producing, complusive, or a cause of discomfort or harm to one or both parties involved |
| Social phobia |
An irrational fear and avoidance of any social or performance situation in which one might embarrass or humiliate one-self in front of others by appearing clumsy, foolish, or imcompetent |
| Somatoform disorder |
Disorders in which physical symptoms are present that are due to psychological causes rather than any known medical condition |
| Specific phobia |
A marked fear of a specific object or situation; a general label for any phobia other than agoraphobia and social phobia |
| Undifferentiated schizophrenia |
A catchall term used when schizophrenic symptoms either do not conform to the criteria of any one type of schizophrenia or conform to more than one type. |
| Social phobia |
An irrational fear and avoidance of any social or performance situation in which one might embarrass or humiliate one-self in front of others by appearing clumsy, foolish, or imcompetent |
| Somatoform disorder |
Disorders in which physical symptoms are present that are due to psychological causes rather than any known medical condition |
| Specific phobia |
A marked fear of a specific object or situation; a general label for any phobia other than agoraphobia and social phobia |
| Undifferentiated schizophrenia |
A catchall term used when schizophrenic symptoms either do not conform to the criteria of any one type of schizophrenia or conform to more than one type. |
