Author: Glossary

  • Voice disorder

    Voice disorder

    A communication disorder characterized by abnormal vocal pitch, loudness, quality, tone, or resonance of enough severity to interfere with educational or occupational achievement or with social communication. Unlike other communication disorders, voice disorder may not appear until adulthood. Abnormal acoustic qualities in a person’s speech, characterized by differences in pitch, loudness, or quality in comparison…

  • Vivitrol

    Vivitrol

    Brand name for an injectable form of the opioid antagonist drug naltrexone. Vivitrol must be administered by a health care professional. Administration is via intramuscular injection once a month. Patients should not be actively drinking at the time of initial administration.  

  • Vivactil

    Brand name for the tricyclic antidepressant drug protriptyline. A commercial preparation of protriptyline.  

  • Vistaril

    Brand name for the antihistamine drug hydroxyzine.  

  • Viagra

    Viagra

    Brand name for the phosphodiesterase inhibitor sildenafil. The commercial designation of an orally ingested medication intended for the treatment of erectile dysfunction, initially approved for sale in the United States in March 1998. The generic term for this drug is sildenafil citrate. The trade name for sildenafil, a medication utilized for addressing impotence.  

  • Vertical split

    Vertical split

    In self psychology, a process by which conscious but unwanted qualities of the self are warded off and separated from conscious desirable self elements. The defenses associated with vertical split are denial, dissociation, and disavowal. Contrast with horizontal split.  

  • Verbigeration

    Stereotyped and seemingly meaningless repetition of words or sentences. Prolonged and monotonous repetition of meaningless words and phrases. A condition seen in people with mental disorders, in which they keep saying the same words over and over again. Repetitive utterances of the same words over and over again. This is a kind of stereotypy affecting…

  • Venlafaxine

    An antidepressant of the serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor (SNRI) class used to treat depression and generalized anxiety disorder. Marketed under the brand name effexor. An antidepressant; an antianxiety drug. Veniafaxine (Effexor) is used to treat depression in adults, as well as certain anxiety symptoms or disorders. Veniafaxine works by affecting neurotransmitters in the brain that are…

  • Velocardiofacial syndrome (VCFS)

    Highly variable presentation that may include midline defects such as cleft palate, cardiac anomalies such as ventroseptal defect, learning disabilities or developmental delay, unusual facies, and psychosis in adolescence. Associated with chromosome arm 22q11 deletion. Also known as shprintzen syndrome or digeorge syndrome. Velocardiofacial syndrome (VCFS) is a nondegenerative autosomal dominant disorder (National Institute on…

  • Vegetative nervous system

    Obsolete term for the autonomic nervous system (ANS).