Science / Psychiatry Glossary

BAS: Barnes Akathisia Rating Scale – an assessment tool to assess the presence and severity of drug-induced akathisia.

Beta-Blocker: An agent that inhibits the action of beta-adrenergic receptors, which modulate cardiac functions, respiratory functions, and the dilation of blood vessels. Beta-blockers are of value in the . . . View Full Definition

Bipolar Disorder: An affective disorder characterized by extreme changes in mood ranging from mania to depression. This mood disturbance is also known as manic depression.

Bizarre Delusion: A delusion that involves a phenomenon that the persons culture would regard as totally implausible.

Blocking: A sudden obstruction or interruption in spontaneous flow of thinking or speaking, perceived as an absence or deprivation of thought.

Blunted Affect: reduction in emotional expression

Body Image: Ones sense of the self and ones body.

BPRS: Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale - an assessment tool for the evaluation of drug treatment effects on schizophrenia symptoms.

Bradykinesia: Neurologic condition characterized by a generalized slowness of motor activity.

Brocas Aphasia: Loss of the ability to comprehend language coupled with production of inappropriate language.

Bruxism: Grinding of the teeth, occurs unconsciously while awake or during stage 2 sleep. May be secondary to anxiety, tension, or dental problems.

Capgras Syndrome: a person who is familiar to the patient is believed to have been replaced by a double

Catalepsy: Waxy flexibility--rigid maintenance of a body position over an extended period of time.

Cataplexy: Episodes of sudden bilateral loss of muscle tone resulting in the individual collapsing, often in association with intense emotions such as laughter, anger, fear, or surprise.

Catatonic Behaviour: Marked motor abnormalities including motor immobility (i.e., catalepsy or stupor), certain types of excessive motor activity (apparently purposeless agitation not influenced by external stim . . . View Full Definition

Catatonic Schizophrenia: (kat-a-ton-ik skiz-o-fre-ne-ah) Schizophrenia characterized by marked disturbance which may involve stupor, negativism, rigidity, excitement, or posturing.

Catharsis: The healthful (therapeutic) release of ideas through talking out conscious material accompanied by an appropriate emotional reaction. Also, the release into awareness of repressed (forgotten . . . View Full Definition

Cathexis: Attachment, conscious or unconscious, of emotional feeling and significance to an idea, an object, or, most commonly, a person.

Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27