Mental Health Vocabulary List

Front 1

Hallucination

Back 1

The occurrence of a sight, sound, touch, or taste without any external stimulus to the sensory organs.

Front 2

Delusions

Back 2

Fixed false beliefs that cannot be changed by logical reasoning.

Front 3

Loose associations

Back 3

Disconnected thoughts, verbal ideas shift from one topic to another, there is no apparent relationship between thoughts and the person is unaware that topics are unconnected.

Front 4

Concrete

Back 4

Refers to thinking characterized by a focus on facts and details and inability to generalize or think abstractly.

Front 5

Tangential

Back 5

Thoughts veer from main idea and never get back to it.

Front 6

Mood

Back 6

The subjective emotional/feeling state that the client describes.

Front 7

Word salad

Back 7

The use of words indiscriminately and haphazardly without logical structure or meaning.

Front 8

Affect

Back 8

The emotional expression of a person that others may observe.

Front 9

Insight

Back 9

In the mental health status assessment refers to the degree of awareness that one has about their own mental illness.

Front 10

Ideas of reference

Back 10

Remarks or actions by someone else that in no way refer to the person but that are interpreted as related to her or him IE patient believes that news anchor person is reporting on them.

Front 11

Pressured

Back 11

Refers to speech that is loud and emphatic, increased in amount, accelerated, and usually difficult or impossible to interrupt.

Front 12

Clanging

Back 12

Refers to speech marked by words grouped by their sound or rhyme and not by their meaning.

Front 13

Circumstantial

Back 13

A disturbance of associative thought and speech processes in which a person digresses into unnecessary, tedious details before communicating the central idea.

Front 14

Confabulation

Back 14

Unconsciously filling in memory gaps with imagined material.

Front 15

Ruminations

Back 15

Recurring mood-congruent thoughts.

Front 16

Flight of ideas

Back 16

Rapid, fragmented thoughts manifested in pressured speech.

Front 17

Disheveled

Back 17

Being in loose disarray; unkempt, as hair or clothing.

Front 18

Malodorous

Back 18

Having a foul odor.

Front 19

Eccentric

Back 19

A person of unconventional and slightly strange views or behavior.

Front 20

Mannerisms

Back 20

A distinctive behavioral trait; exaggerated or affected style or habit, as in dress or speech.

Front 21

Compulsions

Back 21

An irresistible persistent impulse to perform an act.

Front 22

Internal preoccupation

Back 22

Often indicative of hallucinations. Focused on and engrossed in something internal.

Front 23

Guarded

Back 23

Cautious and having possible reservations.

Front 24

Ingratiating

Back 24

Giving excessive compliments.

Front 25

Indifferent

Back 25

Having no particular interest or sympathy; unconcerned.

Front 26

Hostile

Back 26

Unfriendly; antagonistic.

Front 27

Combative

Back 27

Ready or eager to fight; pugnacious.

Front 28

Hypervigilant

Back 28

Paranoid.

Front 29

Psychomotor retardiation

Back 29

Slowing down of thought and a reduction of physical movements in an individual. May cause a visible slowing of physical and emotional reactions, including speech and affect.

Front 30

Pill rolling

Back 30

A circular movement or tremor of the tips of the thumb and the index finger when brought together, often times seen in Parkinson's disease.

Front 31

Dystonia

Back 31

A neurological movement disorder, in which sustained muscle contractions cause twisting and repetitive movements or abnormal postures.

Front 32

Akathisia

Back 32

A feeling of inner restlessness, a constant urge to move.

Front 33

Neologism

Back 33

The invention of new words.

Front 34

Perseverating

Back 34

Repetitive word, phrase, or gesture usage.

Front 35

Euphoric

Back 35

Extremely happy.

Front 36

Euthymic

Back 36

Pertaining to a normal mood in which the range of emotions is neither depressed nor highly elevated.

Front 37

Blunted

Back 37

Failure to express feelings either verbally or non-verbally, especially when talking about issues that would normally be expected to engage the emotions.

Front 38

Flat

Back 38

The absence or near absence of emotional response to a situation that normally elicits emotion.

Front 39

Apathetic/Ambivalent

Back 39

Showing or feeling no interest, enthusiasm, or concern.

Front 40

Labile

Back 40

Unstable, rapidly changing emotions.

Front 41

Thought blocking

Back 41

A sudden inability to finish a though, or to recall what the thought was.

Front 42

Circumstantial speech

Back 42

Communication disorder in which the focus of a conversation drifts, but often comes back to the point.

Front 43

Poverty of thought

Back 43

A person wants to talk in social environment but does not know what to say.

Front 44

Somatic

Back 44

Pertaining to delusions or hallucinations whose main content pertains to the appearance or function of one's body.

Front 45

Thought broadcasting

Back 45

A delusional belief that others can hear or are aware of an individual's thoughts.

Front 46

Thought withdrawal delusion

Back 46

A delusion typical of schizophrenia, in which the patient believes that his thoughts have removed by a hallucinated external force.