Author: Glossary
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Pyromania
Fire setting; an impulse-control disorder consisting of deliberate and purposeful fire setting on more than one occasion. As in other disorders of impulse control, an increasing sense of tension or affective arousal immediately precedes the action, and its completion brings a sense of intense pleasure, gratification, or relief. Morbid compulsion to set fires; an impulse…
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Psychotic disorder due to a general medical condition
Prominent hallucinations or delusions that develop in relation to some general medical condition. In older classifications, such disorders were termed organic brain syndromes or secondary psychotic disorders.
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Psychotherapy
A form of treatment in which a person who wishes to relieve symptoms or resolve problems through verbal interaction seeks help from a qualified mental health professional and enters into an implicit or explicit contract to interact in a prescribed way with a psychotherapist. A collective term for all forms of treatment that use psychological…
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Psychotherapist
A person trained to practice psychotherapy. A person trained to treat mental, emotional, or behavioral disorders. A person trained to give psychotherapy. A health professional who treats mental, emotional, and behavioral problems, using an approach in which a patient talks about problems in a regular therapeutic relation¬ ship. The aim is for patients to learn…
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Psychosurgery
The treatment of mental disorders by means of brain surgery. The first consistent technique for psychosurgery, called lobotomy, consisted of severing fiber tracts between the thalamus and the frontal lobes and was a radical attempt to reduce psychosis, severe depression, or violent behavior in treatment-refractory patients. With the advance of minimally invasive surgical techniques, such…
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Psychosomatic medicine
An american board of psychiatry and neurology (ABPN) subspecialization in the diagnosis and treatment of psychiatric disorders and symptoms in medically ill patients. This includes treatment of patients with acute or chronic medical, neurological, obstetrical, or surgical illness in which psychiatric illness is affecting their medical care and/or quality of life such as HIV infection,…
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Psychosomatic
Referring to the constant and inseparable interaction of the psyche (mind) and the soma (body). Most commonly used to refer to illnesses in which the manifestations are primarily physical but with at least a partial emotional etiology. The manifestation of physical symptoms resulting from a mental state. Referring to the relationship between body and mind.…
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Psychosocial history
An evaluation of the patient that includes a history of psychiatric illness, developmental history, educational history, marital and family life, and employment history.
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Psychosocial development
Progressive interaction between a person and the environment through stages beginning in infancy, as described by erik erikson (1902–1994). A person at phase-specific developmental points faces specific developmental tasks involving social relations and the role of social reality. The early stages parallel those of psychosexual development; the later stages extend through adulthood. Successful and unsuccessful…
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Psychosis
A severe mental disorder characterized by gross impairment in reality testing, typically manifested by delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, or disorganized or catatonic behavior. Psychosis can be caused by psychiatric illnesses such as schizophrenia, delusional disorders, and some mood disorders; by medical and neurological diseases; by brain injury; and by substances of abuse. A major mental…