Mental Health Dictionary, v1.0
The Mental Health Dictionary
College Student Version v1.0
Inquiring Minds has compiled the College Student Mental Health Dictionary in order to help provide answers to questions you may have regarding specific mental health-related terms and to help you better understand the many facets of mental health and mental illness. Please scroll down and you will find terms listed in alphabetic order with easy, simplistic definitions. Note, the Dictionary will be updated intermittently to incorporate new terms and revise outdated definitions. Suggestions for new terms are always welcome. As always, this information is for reference only; please seek medical advice and/or care from a physician or mental health professional regarding personal mental health concerns and emergencies.
A
Accessible Services
Services that are affordable, located nearby, and open during evenings and weekends. Staff is sensitive to and incorporates individual and cultural values. Staff is also sensitive to barriers that may keep a person from getting help. For example, an adolescent may be more willing to attend a support group meeting in a church or club near home than to travel to a mental health center. An accessible service can handle consumer demand without placing people on a long waiting list.
Accreditation
An official decision made by a recognized organization that a health care plan, network, or other delivery system complies with applicable standards.
Activity Therapy
Includes art, dance, music, recreational and occupational therapies, and psychodrama.
Adjustment Disorder
A diagnostic category for maladaptive reactions to identifiable life events or circumstances.
Affect
Feelings; observable aspects of an emotional state, such as sadness, anger, or euphoria
Aggression
Forceful action against another person, which may be physical, verbal, or symbolic, and is meant to cause pain. Such behavior may be hostile or destructive or it may be for self-protection.
Agoraphobia
Fear of leaving the familiar setting of one’s home; form of panic disorder.
Alternative Therapy
An alternative approach to mental health care is one that emphasizes the interrelationship between mind, body, and spirit. Although some alternative approaches have a long history, many remain controversial.
Anorexia nervosa
Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder characterized by unusual eating habits such as avoiding food and meals, picking out a few foods and eating them in small amounts, weighing food, and counting the calories of all foods. Individuals with anorexia nervosa may also exercise excessively.
Antidepressants
Medications used to treat unipolar mood disorders (depression). They include three types: selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), monoamineoxidase inhibitors (MAOs), tricylcic antidepressants.
Antipsychotics
Medications that reduce the intensity of or eliminate hallucinations and delusions.
Anxiety
A normal, natural emotion experienced by most human beings. However, a youth with an anxiety disorder experiences anxiety more strongly and more readily than others and has excessive worry to a degree that interferes with the rest of his or her life.
Anxiety Disorders
Anxiety disorders range from feelings of uneasiness to immobilizing bouts of terror. Most people experience anxiety at some point in their lives and some nervousness in anticipation of a real situation. However if a person cannot shake unwarranted worries, or if the feelings are jarring to the point of avoiding everyday activities, he or she most likely has an anxiety disorder.
Aphasia
Loss of the ability to use or understand words.
Appropriateness
The extent to which a particular procedure, treatment, test, or service is clearly indicated, not excessive, adequate in quantity, and provided in the setting best suited to a patient’s or member’s needs.
Articulation Disorder
Inability or delay in producing speech appropriate to age and dialect, such as when sounds are omitted, distorted, or substituted.
Attachment
The behavior of an organism that relates in an affiliative or dependent manner to another object. Attachment develops during critical periods of life and can be extinguished by lack of opportunity to relate. If this separation occurs before maturation can provide for adaptive adjustment, personality deviation can occur.
Asperger’s Disorder
Included with Autistic Disorder in the category of Pervasive Developmental Disorders, usually evident in the first years of life. Children with these disorders have difficulty in accomplishing early developmental tasks entailing language, communication, socialization, and motor behavior. These disorders are rare and appear to have genetic cause.
Assertive Community Treatment
A multi-disciplinary clinical team approach of providing 24-hour, intensive community services in the individual’s natural setting that help individuals with serious mental illness live in the community.
Assessment
A professional review of an individual’s needs that is done when they first seek services from a caregiver. The assessment of an individual, (i.e., college student), includes a review of physical and mental health, intelligence, school performance, family situation, and behavior in the community. The assessment identifies the strengths of the individual. Together, the caregiver and individual decide what kind of treatment and supports, if any, are needed.
Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, sometimes called ADHD, is a chronic condition with three major symptoms: inattention, impulsivity, and sometimes hyperactivity. ADHD is the most commonly diagnosed behavioral disorder among children and adolescents, affecting between 3 and 5 percent of school-aged children in a 6-month period (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1999). Children and adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder have difficulty controlling their behavior in school and social settings. They also tend to be accident-prone. Although some of these young people may not earn high grades in school, most have normal or above-normal intelligence.
Autism
Autism, also called autistic disorder, is a complex developmental disability that appears in early childhood, usually before age 3. Autism prevents children and adolescents from interacting normally with other people and affects almost every aspect of their social and psychological development.
Average Length of Stay
This represents the average time a client receives a specified service during a specified time period. This is generally computed by counting all the days that clients received the service during the time period and dividing by the number of clients that received the service during the same period. (Days a person was on furlough or not receiving are not counted.)
B
Behavioral Healthcare
Continuum of services for individuals at risk of, or suffering from, mental, addictive, or other behavioral health disorders.
Behavior Modification
Method of treatment used to help children change behaviors by rewarding desired behaviors and establishing consequences for undesirable ones.
Behavioral Therapy
As the name implies, behavioral therapy focuses on behavior, changing unwanted behaviors through rewards, reinforcements, and desensitization. Desensitization, or Exposure Therapy, is a process of confronting something that arouses anxiety, discomfort, or fear and overcoming the unwanted responses. Behavioral therapy often involves the cooperation of others, especially family and close friends, to reinforce a desired behavior.
Benchmark
The industry measure of best performance for a particular indicator or performance goal. The benchmarking process identifies the best performance in the industry (health care or non-health care) for a particular process or outcome, determines how that performance is achieved, and applies the lessons learned to improve performance.
Binge-Eating disorder
Binge-eating is an eating disorder characterized by frequent episodes of compulsive overeating, but unlike bulimia, the eating is not followed by purging. During food binges, individuals with this disorder often eat alone and very quickly, regardless of whether they feel hungry or full.
Biofeedback
Biofeedback is learning to control muscle tension and “involuntary” body functioning, such as heart rate and skin temperature; it can be a path to mastering one’s fears. It is used in combination with, or as an alternative to, medication to treat disorders such as anxiety, panic, and phobias.
Biomedical Treatment
Medication alone, or in combination with psychotherapy, has proven to be an effective treatment for a number of emotional, behavioral, and mental disorders. Any treatment involving medicine is a biomedical treatment. The kind of medication a psychiatrist prescribes varies with the disorder and the individual being treated.
Bipolar Disorder
A mood disorder characterized by varying episodes of mania, hypomania, and depression. Bipolar I disorder refers to the presence of one or more manic episodes, often preceding or following a depressive episode. Bipolar II disorder refers to the presence of one or more major depressive episodes and at least one hypomanic episode and no manic episodes. Bipolar disorder tends to run in families. This disorder typically begins in the mid-twenties and continues throughout life. Without treatment, people who have bipolar disorder often go through devastating life events such as marital breakups, job loss, substance abuse, and suicide.
Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD)
Individuals with BDD are beset by an extreme version of negative appearance concerns. BDD is characterized by a time-consuming and potentially disabling preoccupation with imagined or slight defects in one’s appearance or excessive concern with a slight physical anomaly. To meet the criteria for this diagnosis, the preoccupation must cause significant distress or impair school, persona, or social functioning.
Body Image
One’s sense of self and one’s body as presented to others, which may include size, shape, and attractiveness.
Borderline Personality Disorder
Symptoms of borderline personality disorder, a serious mental illness, include pervasive instability in moods, interpersonal relationships, self-image, and behavior. The instability can affect family and work life, long-term planning, and the individual’s sense of self-identity.
Brain Imaging
Any technique that permits the in vivo visualization of the substance of the central nervous system. One technique is computerized axial tomography (CT) commonly called the CAT scan. Two other methods include positron-emission tomography (PET) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which, based on different principles, also yield a series of two-dimensional images of brain regions.
Bulimia Nervosa
Bulimia nervosa is an eating disorder characterized by excessive eating. People who have bulimia will eat an excessive amount of food in a single episode and almost immediately make themselves vomit or use laxatives or diuretics (water pills) to get rid of the food in their bodies. This behavior often is referred to as the “binge/purge” cycle. Like people with anorexia, people with bulimia have an intense fear of gaining weight.
C
Caregiver
A person who has special training to help people with mental health problems. Examples include social workers, teachers, psychologists, psychiatrists, and mentors.
Central Nervous System (CNS)
The brain and the spinal cord.
Clinical Psychologist
A clinical psychologist is a professional with a doctoral degree in psychology who specializes in therapy.
Clinical Social Worker
Clinical social workers are health professionals trained in client-centered advocacy that assist clients with information, referral, and direct help in dealing with local, State, or Federal government agencies. As a result, they often serve as case managers to help people “navigate the system.” Clinical social workers cannot write prescriptions.
Cognitive Therapy
Cognitive therapy aims to identify and correct distorted thinking patterns that can lead to feelings and behaviors that may be troublesome, self-defeating, or even self-destructive. The goal is to replace such thinking with a more balanced view that, in turn, leads to more fulfilling and productive behavior.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
A combination of cognitive and behavioral therapies, which are generally short-term, and help people change negative thought patterns, beliefs, and behaviors so they can manage symptoms and enjoy more productive, less stressful lives.
Cognitive Distortion
Inaccurate perception of oneself and how one is viewed by others.
Collateral Services
Services that include contacts with significant others involved in the client’s/patient’s life for the purpose of discussing the client’s/patient’s emotional or behavioral problems or the collateral’s relationship with the client/patient.
Community Services
Services that are provided in a community setting. Community services refer to all services not provided in an inpatient setting.
Comorbidity
The existence of more than one disorder at the same time.
Concrete Thinking
Thinking characterized by immediate experience rather than abstractions.
Conduct Disorders
Children with conduct disorder repeatedly violate the personal or property rights of others and the basic expectations of society. A diagnosis of conduct disorder is likely when these symptoms continue for 6 months or longer. Conduct disorder is known as a “disruptive behavior disorder” because of its impact on children and their families, neighbors, and schools.
Congenital
Present at birth.
Consumer
Any individual who does or could receive health care or services. Includes other more specialized terms, such as beneficiary, client, customer, eligible member, recipient, or patient.
Continuum of Care
A term that implies a progression of services that a child moves through, usually one service at a time. More recently, it has come to mean comprehensive services. Also see system of care and wraparound services.
Coping Mechanism
Way of adjusting to environmental stress; includes both conscious and unconscious motivation.
Couples Counseling and Family Therapy
These two similar approaches to therapy involve discussions and problem-solving sessions facilitated by a therapist-sometimes with the couple or entire family group, sometimes with individuals. Such therapy can help couples and family members improve their understanding of, and the way they respond to, one another. This type of therapy can resolve patterns of behavior that might lead to more severe mental illness. Family therapy can help educate the individuals about the nature of mental disorders and teach them skills to cope better with the effects of having a family member with a mental illness-such as how to deal with feelings of anger or guilt.
Crisis Intervention
Form of brief psychotherapy that emphasizes identification of the event precipitating the emotional crisis. Often used in hospital emergency rooms.
Cultural Competence
Help that is sensitive and responsive to cultural differences. Caregivers are aware of the impact of culture and possess skills to help provide services that respond appropriately to a person’s unique cultural differences, including race and ethnicity, national origin, religion, age, gender, sexual orientation, or physical disability. They also adapt their skills to fit a family’s values and customs.
Cyclothymic Disorder
A chronic but less severe form of a bipolar disorder that includes episodes of hypomania and several episodes of depression during a period of two years.
D
DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition)
An official manual of mental health problems developed by the American Psychiatric Association. Psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, and other health and mental health care providers use this reference book to understand and diagnose mental health problems. Insurance companies and health care providers also use the terms and explanations in this book when discussing mental health problems.
Date Rape
Sexual relation between partners known to each other but both partners have not consented.
Day Treatment
Day treatment includes special education, counseling, parent training, vocational training, skill building, crisis intervention, and recreational therapy. It lasts at least 4 hours a day. Day treatment programs work in conjunction with mental health, recreation, and education organizations and may even be provided by them.
Delusion
A delusion is a bizarre thought that has no basis in reality; an obviously erroneous idea that is firmly believed, regardless of its absurdity or challenge by logical argument.
Dementia
Dementia is a problem in the brain that makes it hard for a person to remember, learn and communicate; eventually is becomes difficult for a person to take care of himself or herself. This disorder can also affect a person’s mood and personality.
Depression
An emotional state or mood characterized by intense feelings of sadness, despair, and loss of interest in usual activities. Depression is classified as a mood disorder characterized by intense feelings of sadness that persist beyond a few weeks. Two neurotransmitters that allow brain cells to communicate with one another are implicated in depression: serotonin and norepinephrine.
Diagnostic Evaluation
The aims of a general psychiatric evaluation are 1) to establish a psychiatric diagnosis, 2) to collect data sufficient to permit a case formulation, and 3) to develop an initial treatment plan, with particular consideration of any immediate interventions that may be needed to ensure the patient’s safety, or, if the evaluation is a reassessment of a patient in long-term treatment, to revise the plan of treatment in accord with new perspectives gained from the evaluation.
Differential Diagnosis
The consideration of which of two or more diseases with similar symptoms manifested by the patient.
Discharge
A discharge is the formal termination of service, generally when treatment has been completed or through administrative authority.
Disinhibition
Freedom to act according to one’s own feelings or drives, with less regard for restraints imposed by cultural norms or one’s own conscience.
Disorder of Written Expression
Specific learning disability involving written language and fine motor coordination, problems with visual memory, slowness in finding the correct word.
Disorder of Attachment
Spatial disorientation and inability to arrange thoughts.
Disorientation
Lack of awareness of one’s position in relation to space, time or other people; confusion.
Dissociation
Involuntary mental and emotional distance or separation from events resembling a self-hypnotic state.
Distractibility
Inability to maintain attention; shifting from one area or topic to another with minimum provocation.
Double Depression
The co-occurrence of dysthymic disorder and a major depressive episode.
Drop-In Center
A social club offering peer support and flexible schedule of activities: may operate on evenings and/ weekends.
Drug Dependence
Habituation to, abuse of and/or addiction to a chemical substance.
Drug Interaction
The effects of two or more drugs taken simultaneously producing an alteration in the effects of either drug taken alone.
Dually Diagnosed
A person who has both an alcohol or drug problem and an emotional/psychiatric problem is said to have a dual diagnosis.
Dysgraphia
Specific learning disability involving writing.
Dyskinesia
Any disturbance of movement.
Dyslexia
Specific learning disability involving reading, which may include reversing letters and words.
Dysphoria
Unpleasant mood.
Dysthymic Disorder
Literally means “ill-tempered.” a minor depression. Diagnosis given when the person suffers from a persistent depressed mood, lasting most of the day, most of the time, over a span of two years for adults or one year for children and adolescents.
E
Eating Disorders
The overall term refers to a variety of disorders including anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating disorder. The common feature of all is aberrant eating behavior, often accompanied by a distorted body image. Anorexia is diagnosed when a youngster’s food restriction causes weight to drop 15% below what is normal. Bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorder are characterized by attempts to binge and/or get rid of food eaten.
Early Intervention
A process used to recognize warning signs for mental health problems and to take early action against factors that put individuals at risk. Early intervention can help children get better in less time and can prevent problems from becoming worse.
Education Services
Locating or providing a full range of educational services from basic literacy through the General Equivalency Diploma and college courses. Includes special education at the pre-primary, primary, secondary, and adult levels.
Electroconvulsive Therapy
Also known as ECT, this highly controversial technique uses low voltage electrical stimulation of the brain to treat some forms of major depression, acute mania, and some forms of schizophrenia. This potentially life-saving technique is considered only when other therapies have failed, when a person is seriously medically ill and/or unable to take medication, or when a person is very likely to commit suicide. Substantial improvements in the equipment, dosing guidelines, and anesthesia have significantly reduced the possibility of side effects.
Emergency
A planned program to provide psychiatric care in emergency situations with staff specifically assigned for this purpose. Includes crisis intervention, which enables the individual, family members and friends to cope with the emergency while maintaining the individual’s status as a functioning community member to the greatest extent possible.
Emergency and Crisis Services
A group of services that is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, to help during a mental health emergency. Examples include telephone crisis hotlines, suicide hotlines, crisis counseling, crisis residential treatment services, crisis outreach teams, and crisis respite care.
Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), also referred to as the Federal Anti-patient Dumping Law
An act pertaining to emergency medical situations. EMTALA requires hospitals to provide emergency treatment to individuals, regardless of insurance status and ability to pay (EMTALA, 2002).
Empathy
Understanding how others feel.
Epidemiology
Study of the distribution, prevalence and control of mental disorders in a given population.
Etiology
Causation, particularly in reference to disease.
Executive Functions
Aspects of cognition that relate to an internal supervisor who directs an individual’s thinking, establishes goals, and organizes problem-solving strategies.
F
Family Therapy
Treatment of more than one member of a family, based on the assumption that a problem or mental disorder in one member may be a manifestation of disorder in other members and may affect interrelationships and functioning.
Fee for Service
A type of health care plan under which health care providers are paid for individual medical services rendered
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome
Congenital syndrome caused by exposure to alcohol in utero, characterized by mental retardation and specific physical characteristics.
Flight of Ideas
A pattern of continuous and rapid speech marked by abrupt changes in topic.
Fragile X
Congenital syndrome caused by an abnormality of the X chromosome, characterized by mental retardation, specific maladaptive behaviors, and abnormal physical features.
G
Gatekeeper
Primary care physician or local agency responsible for coordinating and managing the health care needs of members. Generally, in order for specialty services such as mental health and hospital care to be covered, the gatekeeper must first approve the referral.
Gender Identity
Perception of one’s self as male or female, developing in toddlerhood or early childhood, and reinforced by social experience and pubertal changes.
General Hospital
A hospital that provides mental health services in at least one separate psychiatric unit with specially allocated staff and space for the treatment of persons with mental illness.
General Support
Includes transportation, childcare, homemaker services, day care, and other general services for clients/patients.
Genetic
Related to heredity.
Group Therapy
This form of therapy involves groups of usually 4 to 12 people who have similar problems and who meet regularly with a therapist. The therapist uses the emotional interactions of the group’s members to help them get relief from distress and possibly modify their behavior.
H
Hallucinations
Hallucinations are experiences of sensations that have no source; a false sensory experience in which one perceives a sight, sound, touch, taste or smell that is not actually present. Some examples of hallucinations include hearing nonexistent voices, seeing nonexistent things, and experiencing burning or pain sensations with no physical cause.
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
This 1996 act provides protections for consumers in group health insurance plans. HIPAA prevents health plans from excluding health coverage of pre-existing conditions and discriminating on the basis of health status.
Home-Based Services
Help provided in a family’s home either for a defined period of time or for as long as it takes to deal with a mental health problem. Examples include parent training, counseling, and working with family members to identify, find, or provide other necessary help. The goal is to prevent the child from being placed outside of the home. (Alternate term: in-home supports.)
Homeless
A person who lives on the street or in a shelter for the homeless.
Hypochondriasis
A chronic maladaptive style of relating to the environment through preoccupation with shifting somatic concerns and symptoms, fear or conviction that one has a serious physical illness, seeking of medical treatment, unable to accept reassurance (somatization).
Hypomania
An episode of increased energy that can last for hours to days, but is not characterized by lack of touch with reality and so is not sever enough to be considered manic
I
Identity
A person’s global role in life and the perception of his/her sense of self.
Identification
Patterning of one’s behavior after that of another person.
Independent Living Services
Support for a young person living on his or her own. These services include therapeutic group homes, supervised apartment living, and job placement. Services teach youth how to handle financial, medical, housing, transportation, and other daily living needs, as well as how to get along with others.
Individualized Services
Services designed to meet the unique needs of each child and family. Services are individualized when the caregivers pay attention to the needs and strengths, ages, and stages of development of the child and individual family members.
Individual Therapy
Therapy tailored for a patient/client that is administered one-on-one.
Information and Referral Services
Information services are those designed to impart information on the availability of clinical resources and how to access them. Referral services are those that direct, guide, or a client/patient with appropriate services provided outside of your organization.
Inpatient Hospitalization
Mental health treatment provided in a hospital setting 24 hours a day. Inpatient hospitalization provides: (1) short-term treatment in cases where a child is in crisis and possibly a danger to his/herself or others, and (2) diagnosis and treatment when the patient cannot be evaluated or treated appropriately in an outpatient setting.
Intake/ Screening
Services designed to briefly assess the type and degree of a client’s/patient’s mental health condition to determine whether services are needed and to link him/her to the most appropriate and available service. Services may include interviews, psychological testing, physical examinations including speech/hearing, and laboratory studies.
Intensive Case Management
Intensive community services for individuals with severe and persistent mental illness that are designed to improve planning for their service needs. Services include outreach, evaluation, and support.
Interpersonal Psychotherapy
Through one-on-one conversations, this approach focuses on the patient’s current life and relationships within the family, social, and work environments. The goal is to identify and resolve problems with insight, as well as build on strengths.
J
No terms.
K
No terms.
L
Language and Speech Disorders
Abnormal or delayed development of language and speech, including problems with development of expressive language, receptive language, and/or speech and articulation.
Learning Disorders
A child with a learning disorder shows difficulty in acquiring age-appropriate competence in reading, mathematics, written expression or social skills. Thought to be due to variation in brain structure and function.
Legal Advocacy
Legal services provided to ensure the protection and maintenance of a client’s/patient’s rights.
Length of Stay
The duration of an episode of care for a covered person. The number of days an individual stays in a hospital or inpatient facility.
Living Independently
A client who lives in a private residence and requires no assistance in activities of daily living.
Local Mental Health Authority
Local organizational entity (usually with some statutory authority) that centrally maintains administrative, clinical, and fiscal authority for a geographically specific and organized system of health care.
Longitudinal Studies
Research design in which the same subjects are studied over the course of a determined period of time.
M
Magical Thinking
Belief that thinking equates with doing. Occurs in dreams of children or primitive people. Characterized by lack of reasonable relationship between cause and effect.
Malingering
Deliberate simulation or exaggeration of an illness of disability in order to avoid an unpleasant situation.
Major Depressive Disorder (MDD)
A serious depression that lasts six months or longer. MDD has many similarities in both adolescents and adults: sadness, pessimism, sleep and appetite disturbances, and decreased concentration and sex drive; in adolescents, however, these symptoms can also be accompanied by anxiety and irritability.
Mania
Mood characterized by excessive elation, hyperactivity, agitation and accelerated thinking and speaking.
Medical Group Practice
A number of physicians working in a systematic association with the joint use of equipment and technical personnel and with centralized administration and financial organization.
Medication Therapy
Prescription, administration, assessment of drug effectiveness, and monitoring of potential side effects of psychotropic medications.
Mental Disorders
Another term used for mental health problems.
Mental Health
How a person thinks, feels, and acts when faced with life’s situations. Mental health is how people look at themselves, their lives, and the other people in their lives; evaluate their challenges and problems; and explore choices. This includes handling stress, relating to other people, and making decisions.
Mental Health Parity (Act)
Mental health parity refers to providing the same insurance coverage for mental health treatment as that offered for medical and surgical treatments. The Mental Health Parity Act was passed in 1996 and established parity in lifetime benefit limits and annual limits.
Mental Health Problems
Mental health problems are real. They affect one’s thoughts, body, feelings, and behavior. Mental health problems are not just a passing phase. They can be severe, seriously interfere with a person’s life, and even cause a person to become disabled. Mental health problems include depression, bipolar disorder (manic-depressive illness), attention-deficit/ hyperactivity disorder, anxiety disorders, eating disorders, schizophrenia, and conduct disorder.
Mental Illnesses
This term is usually used to refer to severe mental health problems in adults.
Mental Retardation
A condition in which a person’s ability to learn and to function is more limited than others of the same age. During infancy and the toddler years, a child may be considered only a bit slow, although delays in development and in language and motor abilities is apparent. A diagnosis of mental retardation, however, is often not made until elementary school when the child has difficulty in mastering academic skills.
Mobile Treatment Team
Provides assertive outreach, crisis intervention, and independent-living assistance with linkage to necessary support services in the client’s/patient’s own environment. This includes PACT, CTTP, or other continuous treatment team programs.
Monoamineoxidase Inhibitors (MAOIs)
Class of antidepressants that work by slowing the elimination of the brain’s neurotransmitters.
Mood Disorder
Group of mental illness that are characterized by disturbances in mood (the sustained emotional state that affects one’s perception of the world).
Mood Stabilizers
Class of medications (including lithium and various anticonvulsants) that are used to control wide emotional and behavioral swings characteristic of mood disorders such as bipolar depression.
Mutism
Refusal to speak for conscious or unconscious reasons.
N
New Generation Medications
Anti-psychotic medications, which are new and atypical.
Non-Institutional Services
A facility that provides mental health services, but not on a residential basis, other than an inpatient facility or nursing home.
Neurotransmitters
Chemical agents released by a neuron (nerve cell) to send a signal to the neighboring neuron; successive releases by each neighboring neuron allow for communication throughout the nervous system.
Nurse Practitioner (NP)
A nurse practitioner is a registered nurse who works in an expanded role and manages patients’ medical conditions.
Nursing Home
An establishment that provides living quarters and care for the elderly and the chronically ill. This includes assisted living outside a nursing home.
O
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
An anxiety disorder marked by the presence of obsessions and compulsions severe enough to interfere with the activities of daily life. Obsessions are repeated, unwanted thoughts often related to fears of contamination. Compulsions are repeated, purposeless behaviors. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is a chronic, relapsing illness. The obsessions and the need to perform rituals can take over a person’s life if left untreated.
Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD)
Disorder characterized by a pattern of uncooperative, defiant, and hostile behavior toward authority figures that seriously interferes with a child’s day-to-day functioning.
P
Panic Disorders
The recurrence of unexpected, intense anxiety attacks, with physical symptoms such as palpitations, accelerated heart rate, sweating, trembling or shaking, dizziness and shortness of breath. People with panic disorder experience heart-pounding terror that strikes suddenly and without warning. Since they cannot predict when a panic attack will seize them, many people live in persistent worry that another one could overcome them at any moment.
Paranoia and Paranoid Disorders
Symptoms of paranoia include feelings of persecution, suspiciousness, and an exaggerated sense of self-importance, unfair treatment, or harassment. The disorder is present in many mental disorders and it is rare as an isolated mental illness. A person with paranoia can usually work and function in everyday life since the delusions involve only one area. However, their lives can be isolated and limited.
Pastoral Counseling
Pastoral counselors are counselors working within traditional faith communities to incorporate psychotherapy, and/or medication, with prayer and spirituality to effectively help some people with mental disorders. Some people prefer to seek help for mental health problems from their pastor, rabbi, or priest, rather than from therapists who are not affiliated with a religious community.
Personality
Mental traits, characteristics and styles of behavior which are stable over time.
Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD)
Category includes children who behave in egocentric ways, but do not have the language issues or meet the other criteria of Asperger’s or autistic disorder. If the disorders were compared to a virus, PDD is milder than Asperger’s or Autistic Disorder, which are more virulent.
Phobias
Phobias are persistent, irrational fears of objects, people, animals, or situations. Phobias occur in several forms, for example, agoraphobia is the fear of being in any situation that might trigger a panic attack and from which escape might be difficult; social phobia is a fear of being extremely embarrassed in front of other people.
Physician Assistant
A physician assistant is a trained professional who provides health care services under the supervision of a licensed physician.
Placebo
Substance lacking in medicinal value that is used in research as a point of comparison for treatments.
Plan of Care
A treatment plan especially designed for each child and family, based on individual strengths and needs. The caregiver(s) develop(s) the plan with input from the family. The plan establishes goals and details appropriate treatment and services to meet the special needs of the child and family.
Play Therapy
Geared toward young children, play therapy uses a variety of activities-such as painting, puppets, and dioramas-to establish communication with the therapist and resolve problems. Play allows the child to express emotions and problems that would be too difficult to discuss with another person.
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder is an anxiety disorder that develops as a result of witnessing or experiencing a traumatic occurrence or stressor, especially life threatening events. PTSD is characterized by re-experiencing of the traumatic event through the recollection of images, thoughts and perceptions, accompanied by intense feelings of distress, lasting for at least one month. PTSD can cause can interfere with a person’s ability to hold a job or to develop intimate relationships with others.
Practice Guidelines
Systematically developed statements to standardize care and to assist in practitioner and patient decisions about the appropriate health care for specific circumstances. Practice guidelines are usually developed through a process that combines scientific evidence of effectiveness with expert opinion. Practice guidelines are also referred to as clinical criteria, protocols, algorithms, review criteria, and guidelines.
Primary Care Physician (PCP)
Physicians with the following specialties: group practice, family practice, internal medicine, obstetrics/gynecology, and pediatrics. The PCP is usually responsible for monitoring an individual’s overall medical care and referring the individual to more specialized physicians for additional care.
Prognosis
Prediction of course, duration, and outcome.
Psychiatric Emergency Walk-in
A planned program to provide psychiatric care in emergency situations with staff specifically assigned for this purpose. Includes crisis intervention, which enables the individual, family members and friends to cope with the emergency while maintaining the individual’s status as a functioning community member to the greatest extent possible and is open for a patient to walk-in.
Psychiatrist
A psychiatrist is a professional who completed both medical school and training in psychiatry and is a specialist in diagnosing and treating mental illness.
Psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis focuses on past conflicts as the underpinnings to current emotional and behavioral problems. In this long-term and intensive therapy, an individual meets with a psychoanalyst three to five times a week, using “free association” to explore unconscious motivations and earlier, unproductive patterns of resolving issues.
Psychodynamic Therapy
Based on the principles of psychoanalysis, this therapy is less intense, tends to occur once or twice a week, and spans a shorter time. It is based on the premise that human behavior is determined by one’s past experiences, genetic factors, and current situation. This approach recognizes the significant influence that emotions and unconscious motivation can have on human behavior.
Psychopathology
Abnormal and maladaptive behavior, cognition or emotion.
Psychopharmacology
Medical specialty concerned with the use of psychoactive medications to alleviate symptoms of emotional, behavioral or mental disorders.
Psychotherapy
Treatment for various emotional, behavioral or mental problems that uses communication between a trained person and a patient to bring about change and to relieve distress.
Psychosis
The inability to distinguish reality from non-reality and, in particular, the experience of hallucinations and delusions.
Psychosocial Rehabilitation
Therapeutic activities or interventions provided individually or in groups that may include development and maintenance of daily and community-living skills, self-care, skills training includes grooming, bodily care, feeding, social skills training, and development of basic language skills.
Q
Quality Assurance
An approach to improving the quality and appropriateness of medical care and other services. Includes a formal set of activities to review, assess, and monitor care to ensure that identified problems are addressed.
R
Rapid Cycling
Form of bipolar disorder in which one has frequent episodes of depression or mania or a shift from one extreme to the other with no interval of normalcy; episodes last at least one week; it has been reported that they may be briefer in children, but this is controversial.
Rapid Eye Movement (REM)
Description of activity of closed eyes during a particular phase of deep sleep (REM sleep) during which dreams occur.
Reading Disorder
Specific learning disorder marked by difficulties in visually tracking words, visually discriminating between similar letters, or problems associating sounds with their symbols and interpreting the meaning of words.
Reality Testing
Ability to evaluate the external world objectively and to differentiate adequately between it and the internal world.
Receptive Language
Decoding spoken words and sentences requiring discrimination among sounds, interpretation of what is heard, and assignment of meaning to words and sentences.
Registered Nurse (RN)
A registered nurse is a trained professional with a nursing degree who provides patient care and administers medicine.
Regression
Return to an earlier pattern of thinking or acting.
Regulation (Emotion Regulation)
The monitoring and adjustment of thoughts or behaviors that influence the nature, timing and expression of emotions.
Residential Services
Services provided over a 24-hour period or any portion of the day, which a patient resided, on an on-going basis, in a State facility or other facility and received treatment.
Residential Treatment Centers
Facilities that provide treatment 24 hours a day and can usually serve more than 12 young people at a time. Children with serious emotional disturbances receive constant supervision and care. Treatment may include individual, group, and family therapy; behavior therapy; special education; recreation therapy; medical services. Residential treatment is usually more long-term than inpatient hospitalization. Centers are also known as therapeutic group homes.
Risk Factor
Indication of a higher likelihood that one will develop a disorder.
S
Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by “positive” and “negative” symptoms. Psychotic, or positive, symptoms include delusions, hallucinations, and disordered thinking (apparent from a person’s fragmented, disconnected and sometimes nonsensical speech). Negative symptoms include social withdrawal, extreme apathy, diminished motivation, and blunted emotional expression. May have a gradual onset, with symptoms of withdrawal and disordered language evident over time, or it may have a sudden onset in adolescence.
School Based Services
School-based treatment and support interventions designed to identify emotional disturbances and/or assist parents, teachers, and counselors in developing comprehensive strategies for addressing these disturbances. School-based services also include counseling or other school-based programs for emotionally disturbed children, adolescents, and their families within the school, home and community environment.
Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is a form of depression that appears related to fluctuations in the exposure to natural light. It usually strikes during autumn and often continues through the winter when natural light is reduced. Researchers have found that people who have SAD can be helped with the symptoms of their illness if they spend blocks of time bathed in light from a special full-spectrum light source, called a “light box.”
Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs)
Group of medications that have been shown to be effective in the treatment of mood disorders; their mechanism of action is believed to be increasing the amount of serotonin in regions of the brain.
Self-Help
Self-help generally refers to groups or meetings that: involve people who have similar needs; are facilitated by a consumer, survivor, or other layperson; assist people to deal with a “life-disrupting” event, such as a death, abuse, serious accident, addiction, or diagnosis of a physical, emotional, or mental disability, for oneself or a relative; are operated on an informal, free-of-charge, and nonprofit basis; provide support and education; and are voluntary, anonymous, and confidential. Many people with mental illnesses find that self-help groups are an invaluable resource for recovery and for empowerment.
Serious Emotional Disturbances
Diagnosable disorders in children and adolescents that severely disrupt their daily functioning in the home, school, or community. Serious emotional disturbances affect one in 10 young people. These disorders include depression, attention-deficit/hyperactivity, anxiety disorders, conduct disorder, and eating disorders.
Serious Mental Illness
Pursuant to section 1912(c) of the Public Health Service Act, adults with serious mental illness SMI are persons: (1) age 18 and over and (2) who currently have, or at any time during the past year had a diagnosable mental behavioral or emotional disorder of sufficient duration to meet diagnostic criteria specified within DSM-IV or their ICD-9-CM equivalent (and subsequent revisions) with the exception of DSM-IV “V” codes, substance use disorders, and developmental disorders, which are excluded, unless they co-occur with another diagnosable serious mental illness. (3) That has resulted in functional impairment, which substantially interferes with or limits one or more major life activities. (Federal Register Volume 58 No. 96 published Thursday May 20, 1993 pages 29422 through 29425.)
Serotonin
Neurotransmitter believed to be central to such functions as sleep, sexual behavior, aggressiveness, motor activity and mood; abnormalities in serotonin have been suggested to play a role in psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia and mood disorders.
Service
A type of support or clinical intervention designed to address the specific mental health needs of a child and his or her family. A service could be provided only one time or repeated over a course of time, as determined by the child, family, and service provider.
Social Anxiety Disorder (School Phobia)
Associated with an intense and persistent fear of situations in which one is exposed to possible scrutiny or judgment.
Somatoform Disorder
Disorder characterized by the development of physical symptoms that suggest a medical condition but are not fully explained by any medical condition.
Somatic Symptoms
Physical symptoms resulting from psychiatric illness, such as fatigue, aches and pains, changes in appetite and sleep patterns.
State Hospital
A publicly funded inpatient facility for persons with mental illness.
Stigma
Stigma is not just the use of the wrong word or action. Stigma is about disrespect. It is the use of negative labels to identify a person living with mental illness. Stigma is a barrier and discourages individuals and their families from getting the help they need because of the fear of being discriminated against.
Stuttering
Involuntary breaks in the rhythm or fluency of speech such as repetition of syllables, prolongation of sounds and pauses in which the person seems to be struggling to make any sound at all.
Substance Abuse
Misuse of medications, alcohol or other illegal substances.
Suicide
Suicide is the 8th leading cause of death in the United States, claiming about 30,000 lives a year. Ninety percent of persons who commit suicide have depression or another diagnosable mental or substance abuse disorder. Suicide attempts are among the leading causes of hospital admissions in persons under 35. The highest suicide rates in the U.S. are found in white men over the age of 85. Suicide can be prevented.
Synapse
The junction between two neurons (or between a neuron and a muscle or gland cell) through which nerve impulses are transmitted.
Syndrome
A configuration of symptoms that occur together and constitute a recognizable condition.
Systematic Desensitization
Behavioral therapy technique in which the patient is presented with a graduated hierarchy of anxiety-provoking stimuli.
T
Telephone Hotline
A dedicated telephone line that is advertised and may be operated as a crisis hotline for emergency counseling, or as a referral resource for callers with mental health problems.
Temperament
A set of character traits an infant is born with; sometimes thought of as a child’s inherent disposition and the foundation of her or his personality.
Thought Disorders
Disorder characterized by an impairment of thinking, including disorganized, incoherent, or vague speech, delusions, hallucinations or paranoia.
Tic
An intermittent, involuntary, spasmodic movement of a group of muscles, often without an obvious external stimulus. Vocal tic is a sound made involuntarily.
Tourette’s Disorder (TD)
Disorder characterized by multiple motor tics along with vocal tics such as grunting, humming, and tongue-clicking.
Transient Tic Disorder
A common tic disorder which generally appears during the early years; can occur daily for at least two weeks but for no longer than one year; child can have a series of transient tics over the course of years; if frequent may affect aspects of a child’s life.
Trauma
Injury, physical or psychological, caused by shock, violence or abuse.
Tricyclic Antidepressants
Class of medications used to treat disorders such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, tic disorders, depression, believed to work by increasing the amounts of various chemicals in the brain.
U
Utilization
The level of use of a particular service over time.
V
Vocational Rehabilitation Services
Services that include job finding/development, assessment and enhancement of work-related skills, attitudes, and behaviors as well as provision of job experience to clients/patients. Includes transitional employment.
W
Wraparound Services
A unique set of community services and natural supports for a child/adolescent with serious emotional disturbances based on a definable planning process, individualized for the child and family to achieve a positive set of outcomes.
X
No terms.
Y
No terms.
Z
No terms.
References: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) Center for Mental Health Services & New York University Child Study Center “Mental Health Dictionary,” 2009.
