Science / Psychiatry Glossary

Depot Injections: These are long-acting intramuscular injections of antipsychotics given every 1 to 4 weeks.

Depression: A mood disorder characterised by feelings of sadness, hopelessness, helplessness, and worthlessness. Sometimes physical symptoms such as slow movement and speech are also present.

Depressive Retardation: lesser form of psychomotor retardation which occurs in depression.

Derailment: A pattern of speech in which a persons ideas slip off one track onto another that is completely unrelated or only obliquely related. In moving from one sentence or clause to another, the per . . . View Full Definition

Derealization: An alteration in the perception or experience of the external world so that it seems strange or unreal (e.g., people may seem unfamiliar or mechanical).

Dereistic: Mental activity that is not in accordance with reality, logic, or experience.

Detachment: A behavior pattern characterized by general aloofness in interpersonal contact; may include intellectualization, denial, and superficiality.

Diplopia: Double vision due to paralysis of the ocular muscles; seen in inhalant intoxication and other conditions affecting the oculomotor nerve.

Disconnection Syndrome: Term coined by Norman Geschwind (1926-1984) to describe the interruption of information transferred from one brain region to another.

Disinhibition: Freedom to act according to ones inner drives or feelings, with less regard for restraints imposed by cultural norms or ones superego; removal of an inhibitory, constraining, or limiting inf . . . View Full Definition

Disorientation: Confusion about the time of day, date, or season (time), where one is (place), or who one is (person).

Displacement: A defense mechanism, operating unconsciously, in which emotions, ideas, or wishes are transferred from their original object to a more acceptable substitute; often used to allay anxiety.

Dissociative Disorder: disorder in which there is a disturbance in the normal integration or awareness of identity, consciousness, memory and control of body movements.

Distractibility: The inability to maintain attention, that is, the shifting from one area or topic to another with minimal provocation, or attention being drawn too frequently to unimportant or irrelevant ex . . . View Full Definition

Double Bind: Interaction in which one person demands a response to a message containing mutually contradictory signals, while the other person is unable either to comment on the incongruity or to escape . . . View Full Definition

Drive: Basic urge, instinct, motivation; a term used to avoid confusion with the more purely biological concept of instinct.

DSM-IV: fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, published by the American Psychiatric Association, Washington DC (1994). Multiaxial classification with 5 axes.

Dyad: A two-person relationship, such as the therapeutic relationship between doctor and patient in individual psychotherapy.

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