Author: Glossary

  • Multidimensional impairment

    A condition that includes a variety of impairing psychiatric symptoms, including poor reality testing, perceptual disturbances, neuropsychological deficits, affective instability, and an inability to relate to peers despite attempts to do so.  

  • Multiaxial system

    The system used in psychiatry to evaluate various aspects of a patient’s mental, physical, psychosocial, and global functioning. dsm-iv-tr lists five axes: Axis I: Clinical disorders. Used to indicate the major disorders, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and panic disorder. Axis II: personality disorders or mental retardation (intellectual disability). A separate axis is used to…

  • Muina

    A culture-specific syndrome whose symptoms include acute nervous tension, headache, trembling, screaming, stomach disturbances, and in more severe cases, loss of consciousness. The underlying cause is thought to be strongly experienced anger or rage. Also known as bilis or colera.  

  • Movement disorders

    Disorders affecting motor behavior or body movements, characterized by symptoms such as tremor, chorea, dystonia, bradykinesia, ballismus, ataxia, akathisia, and akinesia. Neurological conditions associated with movement disorders include parkinson’s disease, huntington’s disease, and hemiballismus. Movement disorders may also be the result of medication effects. Disorders of the nervous system, muscles, joints, and bones that may…

  • Mourning

    Grief; reaction to the loss of a love object (i.e., important person, object, role, status, or anything considered an important and positive part of one’s life) consisting of a process of emotional detachment from that object, which frees the person to find other interests and enjoyments. The observable expression of grief after a death, especially…

  • Motor skills disorder

    Motor skills disorder

    Includes developmental coordination disorder, which is characterized by poor performance in activities requiring motor coordination. Performance is below that expected given the subject’s age and intelligence. Examples are delays in achieving motor milestones such as walking, crawling, or sitting; clumsiness; lack of expected proficiency in sports; or poor handwriting.  

  • Motivational interviewing

    A client-centered, nonjudgmental, non-confrontational, and non-adversarial method of engaging intrinsic motivation to change behavior by developing discrepancy and exploring and resolving ambivalence within the client. The approach attempts to increase the client’s awareness of the potential problems caused, consequences experienced, and risks faced as a result of the behavior in question.  

  • Motivational enhancement therapy (MET)

    A time-limited therapy that has been found useful in the treatment of alcoholism; it encourages patients to talk about the positive and negative aspect of use, emphasizing abstinence. A form of psychotherapy to overcome ambivalence and help people to reach desired goals. It is used to treat alcoholism, drug dependency, and anorexia/bulimia.  

  • Moral treatment

    A philosophy and technique of treating mental patients that began to prevail in the first half of the nineteenth century that emphasized removal of restraints, humane and kindly care, attention to religion, and performance by the patients of useful tasks in the hospital.  

  • Moral reconation therapy (MRT)

    Developed in 1985 by Gregory Little and Kenneth Robinson, this systematic treatment strategy seeks to decrease recidivism among juvenile and adult criminal and substance ABUSE offenders by increasing moral reasoning. It is a longterm approach focused on changing the criminal thought processes of convicted felons.