Author: Glossary

Impairment of judgment, memory, reasoning, and comprehension due to a variety of causes.  

A form of psychotherapy focused on changing thoughts and behaviors that are related to specific target symptoms. Treatment is aimed at symptom reduction and improved functioning. The patient is taught to recognize the negative and unrealistic thought patterns that contribute significantly to the development or maintenance of symptoms and to evaluate and modify such thinking…

Refers to the mental process of comprehension, judgment, memory, and reasoning, in contrast to emotional and volitional processes. Contrast with conative. Pertaining to one’s basic strivings as expressed in behavior and actions. Pertaining to the mental processes of thinking, knowing, remembering, and perceiving. Pertaining to the mental processes of comprehension, memory, judgment, and reasoning, as…

A general term encompassing all the various modes of knowing and reasoning. Activities or mental behavior that are not feeling or affectively oriented. The mental action or process of gaining knowledge by using your mind or your senses, or knowledge gained in this way. Mental faculty of knowing, including perceiving, thinking, recognizing, and remembering. Intellectual…

A reversible acetylcholinesterase inhibitor used in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. The brand name for tacrine.  

An anticholinergic medication used to treat muscle stiffness and other motor side effects either from Parkinson’s disease or as a result of treatment with conventional antipsychotic medications such as Haldol (haloperidol). The brand name for benztropine.  

A term referring to the effects that people who are dependent on alcohol or other substances have on those around them, including the attempts of those people to manage the chemically dependent person. The term implies that the family’s actions tend to perpetuate (enable) the person’s dependence. An emotional and behavioral state characterized by exaggerated…

In dsm-iv-tr, a group of mental disorders that includes cocaine dependence; cocaine abuse; cocaine intoxication; cocaine withdrawal; cocaine intoxication delirium; cocaineinduced psychotic disorder, with delusions or hallucinations; cocaine-induced mood disorder; cocaine-induced anxiety disorder; cocaine-induced sexual dysfunction; and cocaine-induced sleep disorder.  

The use of more than one medication to achieve a desired response. Combination is the use of two or more medications with different mechanisms of action but within the same overall class, such as the use of two antidepressants to treat refractory depression. Augmentation is the addition of one or more medications to enhance the…