Psych Signs and Symptoms

Psych Signs and Symptoms

Coma vigil – coma where patient looks like their sleeping but is easily aroused.

Sundowning – older people have drowsiness, ataxia, confusion at night because overly sedated with medication.

Affect – how you express your emotions vs your emotions. Can be appropriate , inappropriate, blunted, restricted (milder than blunted), flat, or labile (rapidly changing)

Alexithymia – inability to describe or be aware of emotions.

Abreaction – emotional discharge after recalling a painful experience.

Diurnal variation – mood worst in morning and improves throughout day.

Pseudocyesis – patient has signs of pregnancy like abdominal distinction breast enlargement, pigmentation, cessation of menses, and morning sickness, but is not pregnant. Associated with mood disorder.

Catatonic posturing – staying in a weird position for a long time vs catatonic rigidity.

Cerea flexibilitas – able to be molded

Catalepsy vs cataplexy – catalepsy the person stays in an immobile position. Cataplexy the patient lose muscle tone.

Stereotypy – repetitive fixed pattern of physical action or speech

Nymphomania – excessive compulsion to coitus w woman
Satyriasis – excessive compulsion to coitus in man

Abulia – indiffence about consequences of action –> reduced impulse to act or think.

Astana abasia – cant stand or walk normally, seen in conversion disorder. Muscles are fine though.

Twirling – seen in autistic children. They rotate in the direction their head is turned.

Formal thought disorder – disorder in the form of thought rather than in the content of thought. Can be characterized by loosened associations, neologisms, and illogical constructs. Thought process if disordered and person is psychotic.

Dereism – mental activity not concordat with logic or experience. I.e. magical thinking, primary process thinking.

Autistic thinking – preoccupation with inner, private world.

Circumstantiality – indirect speech with overinclusion of details and parentheses but eventually gets to the point. Vs. tangentially, in which you never reach the point of the conversation.

Perseveration – persisting response to previous stimulus even after a new stimulus has been presented. Found in cognitive disorders.

Verbigeration – meaningless repetition of specific word or phrases.

Glossolalia – speaking in tongues.

Mood-congruent delusion – delusion with mood-appropriate content. Vs mood-incongruent delusion.

Delusion of reference – false believe that a person, event, or object have particular or unusual significance to the patient. Like if u think the person on tv is talking about you.

Erotomania – delusion that someone is deeply in love with them, more common in women.

Pseudo logia phantastica – when you lie to yourself to the point of believing in it and acting on it. Associated with Munchhausen syndrome.

Monomania – preoccupation with a single object.

Hypochondria – over interpreting physical signs and sensations as abnormal.