Author: Glossary
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Minipress
Brand name for the antihypertensive drug prazosin.
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Mini-mental state examination (MMSE)
A screening test for cognitive dysfunction that is frequently used by consultation psychiatrists when assessing patients hospitalized in a general hospital who develop psychiatric disorders. A test performed mainly by psychiatrists to determine someone’s mental ability, used in the diagnosis of dementia. A commonly used assessment tool to quantify a person’s cognitive ability. It assesses…
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Minimal brain dysfunction (MBD)
An older term, currently out of favor, for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). A disturbance of children, adolescents, and perhaps adults, without signs of major neurological or psychiatric disturbance. Characterized by decreased attention span, distractibility, in- creased activity, impulsivity, emotional lability, poor motor integration, disturbances in perception and disorders of language development. A group of conditions characterized…
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Miltown
Brand name (now discontinued) for the nonbenzodiazepine sedative-hypnotic drug meprobamate. A commercial preparation of the first minor tranquilizer developed in 1952.
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Milnacipran
A serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor (SNRI) antidepressant medication approved to treat major depressive disorder and fibromyalgia. Marketed under the brand name savella.
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Milieu therapy
Socioenvironmental therapy in which the attitudes and behavior of the staff of a treatment service and the activities prescribed for the patients are determined by the patients’ emotional and interpersonal needs. This therapy is an essential part of all inpatient treatment. A treatment procedure in which the total environment of a treatment facility, the patients…
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Mild cognitive impairment (MCI)
A diagnosis given to individuals who have cognitive impairment that is beyond what would be expected for their age and education but that does not interfere significantly with their daily activities. MCI is considered to represent the transitional stage between normal aging and dementia. A subjectively sensed, and objectively verifiable, loss of memory that may…
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Midlife crisis
The set of problems that arise when individuals discover visible signs that they are aging and become preoccupied with the realization. The period of emotional upheaval noted among some midlife persons as they struggle with the finality of death and the nature of their past and future accomplishments. An intense, temporary pattern of disturbing feelings,…
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Middle age
Conventionally considered to occur between ages 40 and 60–65 years and primarily defined by psychosocial rather than by physiological events. An imprecise term that refers to the period of life that begins roughly at age 40 and ends at about age 64. During middle age in Western societies, many medical problems begin to increase in…
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Midbrain
The part of the brain—also called the mesencephalon—that contains the tectum, the tegmentum, the ventricular mesocoelia, and the cerebral peduncles. The midbrain adjoins the pons caudally and the diencephalon rostrally. The middle of the three primitive enlargements of the developing brain in the embryo, connecting the pons and the cerebellum with the hemispheres of the…