Author: Glossary

A psychiatrist who has passed examinations administered by the american board of psychiatry and neurology (ABPN), and thus becomes certified as a medical specialist in psychiatry.    

A component of a substance abuse evaluation that seeks to determine whether detectable amounts of a substance or its metabolites are present in the blood.  

The concentration of a drug in the plasma, serum, or blood. In psychiatry, the term is most often applied to levels of lithium carbonate, tricyclic antidepressants, and anticonvulsants. Maximum clinical responses to these agents have been correlated with specific ranges of blood levels. The concentration of a specific substance in the blood plasma or serum…

A sudden obstruction or interruption in spontaneous flow of thinking or speaking, perceived as an absence or a deprivation of thought. In psychology, involuntary inhibition of recall, ideation, or communication. A psychiatric disorder, in which someone suddenly stops one train of thought and switches to another. Interruption of a train of speech before a thought…

Visual scotoma, a circumscribed area of blindness or impaired vision in the visual field; by extension, an area of the personality of which the subject is unaware, typically because recognition of this area would cause painful emotions. An area of a person’s personality of which he is totally unaware, since recognition would cause painful emotions.…

Originally a concept of Sigmund Freud (1856–1939), indicating a belief that components of both sexes could be found in each person. Today, the term is often used to refer to persons who are capable of achieving orgasm with a partner of either sex. The state of being sexually attracted to both males and females. The…

Term used by Otto rank (1884–1939) to relate his theories of anxiety and neurosis to what he believed to be the inevitable psychic shock of being born. An injury caused to a a baby delivery. Any injury occurring to a baby during the act of birth. In psychiatry it refers to mental trauma alleged to…

In the self psychology of heinz kohut (1913–1981), the final psychic structure that emerges following successful development and transformations of infantile constellations (equivalent to the mature human psyche of id, ego, and superego). The structure begins as the nuclear self made up of the grandiose self and the idealized parental imago. In successful development, the…

In dsm-iv-tr, a group of mood disorders that includes bipolar disorder, single episode; bipolar disorder, recurrent; and cyclothymic disorder. In dsm-iv-tr, bipolar i disorder includes a manic episode at some time during its course. In any particular patient, the bipolar disordermay take the form of a single manic episode (rare), or it may consist of…

An anticholinergic medication used as an adjuvant in the therapy of all forms of parkinsonism and to control medicationinduced extrapyramidal symptoms (EPS). Marketed under the brand Name akineton. A drug with effects similar to those of atropine, used in the treatment of parkinsonism, certain forms of spasticity, and to control the muscular incoordination that may…