Author: Glossary

One of the learning disorders, characterized by impaired reading accuracy or comprehension that interferes significantly with academic performance or activities of living that require reading skills. Reading achievement is substantially below that expected, given the individual’s age, measured intelligence, and ageappropriate education. A condition that interferes with or prevents comprehension of written or printed material;…

A disorder of infancy or early childhood, with onset before the child is 5 years old, characterized by markedly disturbed and developmentally inappropriate social relatedness. In the inhibited type of reactive attachment disorder, failure to respond predominates, and responses are hypervigilant, avoidant, or highly ambivalent and contradictory. In the disinhibited type, indiscriminate sociability is characteristic,…

In psychiatry, often used synonymously with exogenous to denote symptoms that arise in response to external circumstances or events. Contrast with endogenous. Taking place as a reaction to something else. Describing mental illnesses that are precipitated by events in the psychological environment. For example, reactive depression is distinguished in this way from endogenous depression. Capable…

A defense mechanism, operating unconsciously, in which a person adopts affects, ideas, and behaviors that are the opposites of impulses harbored either consciously or unconsciously. For example, excessive moral zeal may be a reaction to strong but repressed asocial impulses. In psychiatry, defense mechanism in which a person unconsciously develops attitudes and behavior that are…

Brand name for the acetylcholinesterase inhibitor drug galantamine.  

A defense mechanism, operating unconsciously, in which an individual attempts to justify or make consciously tolerable by plausible means feelings or behavior that otherwise would be intolerable. Not to be confused with conscious evasion or dissimulation. In psychiatry, defense mechanism in which a person justifies behavior or occurrences by giving reasonable, but not true, explanations.…

An irreversible inhibitor of monoamine oxidase used as monotherapy in early parkinson’s disease or as adjunctive therapy in more advanced cases. Marketed under the brand name azilect.  

The feeling of harmonious accord and mutual responsiveness that contributes to the patient’s confidence in the therapist and willingness to work cooperatively. To be distinguished from transference, which is unconscious Interpersonal relations characterized by a spirit of cooperation, confidence, and harmony. An emotional bond or friendly relationship between people. A relationship of mutual trust and…

Referring to bipolar disorder in which four or more episodes of mood disturbance (manic, hypomanic, or major depressive episode) occur within 1 year. Four or more episodes of depression, mania, hypomania, or other alternating mood disturbances occurring in a single year. Roughly 10% of patients with bipolar illness have this condition; more men than women…

A moderate-sized cluster of nuclei found in the brain stem, whose main function is to release serotonin to the rest of the brain. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressants are believed to act in these nuclei, as well as at their targets.