Glossary

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P - Z

labile affect: An affect type that indicates abnormal sudden rapid shifts in affect.

Language Disorder: A lag in the ability to understand or express ideas that puts linguistic skill significantly behind an individual's development in other areas.

Learning Disabilities: An impairment in a specific mental process which affects learning.

lethargy: A feeling of tiredness, drowsiness or lack of energy.

Mania: A symptom of bipolar disorder characterized by exaggerated excitement, physical over activity, and profuse and rapidly changing ideas (scattered or tangential thoughts

Marriage Therapy: A treatment in which a therapist consults with both the husband and wife to help them learn to communicate better, to provide more support to each other, and to understand their interactions.

Medication Therapy: Prescription, administration, assessment of drug effectiveness, and monitoring of potential side effects of psycho-tropic medications.

melancholy: Symptoms usually found in severe major depressive episodes, including loss of pleasure, lethargy, weight loss and insomnia.

Mental Health: How a person thinks, feels, and acts when faced with life's situations.

Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitors (MAOIs): Drugs used in the treatment of clinical depression. These substances decrease depressive symptoms by stopping an enzyme that breaks down the mood stimulating chemicals in the brain.

mood: A pervasive and sustained emotion that affects the perception of the world.

Mood Disorder: The term Mood Disorder refers to the family of depressive disorders, including Depression, Bipolar Affective Disorder (manic depression) and related diagnoses.

Multiple Personality Disorder: A rare dissociative disorder marked by the appearance, within one person, of two or more distinct personalities (multiple personalities), each with its own name, history, and traits.

neurotransmitters: chemicals in the brain used to transfer messages from one nerve cell to another and affect mood.

Norepinephrine: A hormone that regulates blood pressure by causing blood vessels to narrow and the heart to beat faster. It also has a role in regulating mood.

obsessions: unwanted, unpleasant, and intrusive thoughts, images, or impulses that repeatedly well up in the mind of the obsessive-compulsive disorder sufferer and cause a high degree of anxiety. Some examples of obsessions include fear of being contaminated with germs, repeated doubts (is the stove on?), aggressive impulses, or sexual images.

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD): A neurobiological anxiety disorder

Oppositional-Defiant Disorder: A disorder of early to middle childhood that may evolve into a conduct disorder usually diagnosed before the age of twelve; children with oppositional defiant disorder defy adult rules, are angry, and often lose their tempers.