Insomnia Disorder
A sleep disorder characterized by difficulty initiating or maintaining sleep, or waking up too early and not being able to go back to sleep, despite adequate opportunity for rest.
Hypersomnolence Disorder
A condition involving excessive sleepiness despite sufficient sleep duration, with symptoms such as sleep inertia or prolonged unrefreshing sleep.
Narcolepsy
A sleep disorder involving sudden, uncontrollable episodes of falling asleep during the day, often accompanied by cataplexy.
Cataplexy
A sudden and temporary loss of muscle control, often triggered by strong emotions, while consciousness remains intact.
Sleep Inertia
A state of cognitive impairment and grogginess immediately after waking up, common in hypersomnolence disorder.
Obstructive Sleep Apnea Hypopnea
A disorder characterized by repeated episodes of blocked or partially blocked upper airway during sleep, leading to poor sleep quality and excessive daytime fatigue.
Apnea
A pause in breathing during sleep.
Hypopnea
Abnormally shallow or slow breathing during sleep.
CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure)
A treatment for sleep apnea that involves a machine delivering constant air pressure to keep airways open during sleep.
Circadian Rhythm Sleep-Wake Disorder
A disorder involving a mismatch between the body’s internal sleep-wake cycle and the external environment or schedule demands.
Circadian System
The biological clock that regulates sleep-wake cycles based on environmental cues like light and darkness.
Parasomnias
A category of sleep disorders that include abnormal movements, behaviors, or events occurring during sleep or sleep transitions.
NREM Sleep Arousal Disorders
Disorders that occur during non-rapid eye movement sleep, often involving partial arousal such as sleepwalking or sleep terrors.
Nightmare Disorder
A parasomnia involving frequent nightmares that cause distress or sleep disturbance.
REM Sleep Behavior Disorder
A condition in which individuals act out vivid dreams during REM sleep due to a lack of normal muscle paralysis.
Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS)
A condition involving an uncontrollable urge to move the legs, usually due to uncomfortable sensations, often worsening during rest or at night.
Sleep Hygiene
Behavioral and environmental practices intended to promote better quality sleep.
Sleep Deprivation
A condition resulting from inadequate quantity or quality of sleep, associated with numerous cognitive, emotional, and physical impairments.
Sleep Latency
The amount of time it takes to fall asleep after lying down.
Dyssomnias
Disorders that involve difficulty with the amount, quality, or timing of sleep.
Polysomnography
A diagnostic test for sleep disorders that records brain waves, oxygen levels, heart rate, and other functions during sleep.
Amygdala: A brain structure involved in emotion regulation, particularly fear and aggression. Dysfunction is associated with violence and antisocial behavior.
Anosognosia: Lack of awareness or denial of a neurological condition or disability, often seen in right hemisphere damage.
Anterograde Amnesia: Inability to form new memories after a brain injury.
Apraxia: A motor disorder caused by parietal lobe damage, resulting in difficulty executing purposeful movements despite intact motor function.
Ataxia: A neurological sign of impaired coordination, balance, and speech, often resulting from cerebellar damage.
Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE): A progressive degenerative brain disease caused by repeated head trauma. Symptoms worsen over time and include memory loss, mood changes, and dementia.
Closed Head Injury: A TBI in which the skull remains intact, including injuries like concussions and contusions.
Contusion: A bruise on the brain, often due to a direct blow causing the brain to collide with the inside of the skull. It may result in localized brain damage.
Coup-Contrecoup Injury: A type of brain contusion where injury occurs at the site of impact (coup) and on the opposite side of the brain (contrecoup) due to brain movement within the skull.
Edema: Swelling in the brain, usually due to fluid accumulation, which can increase intracranial pressure.
Enrichment Programs: Interventions (e.g., nutrition, cognitive training) shown to reduce long-term antisocial behavior in at-risk children.
Hemorrhage: Bleeding within or around the brain, often as a result of trauma.
Impulse Control: The ability to resist urges and regulate behavior. Impairment is commonly seen in individuals with frontal lobe or amygdala damage.
Laceration (Brain): A severe TBI where brain tissue is torn or penetrated, often due to skull fracture or an object entering the brain (e.g., a bullet wound).
LOC (Loss of Consciousness): A measure used to determine the severity of TBI:
- Mild: ≤ 30 minutes
- Moderate: ≤ 6 hours
- Severe: > 6 hours
Open Head Injury: A brain injury involving penetration of the skull and brain, such as in lacerations.
Postconcussional Syndrome (PCS): A complex disorder involving lingering symptoms such as headaches, dizziness, fatigue, and cognitive impairments following a concussion.
Pseudodepression: A condition resembling depression (e.g., apathy, lack of motivation) caused by damage to the frontal lobe.
Pseudopsychopathy: A condition involving socially inappropriate behavior, impulsivity, and lack of empathy, linked to frontal lobe damage.
Retrograde Amnesia: Loss of memory for events that occurred before a brain injury.
Shrinking Retrograde Amnesia: A recovery pattern in which distant memories return first after a brain injury, followed gradually by more recent ones.
Sleep Inertia: A state of cognitive impairment and drowsiness experienced after waking, often discussed in relation to sleep-wake disorders but relevant here due to TBI-related fatigue.
TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury): A physical wound or injury to the brain caused by an external force such as a blow, fall, or penetrating object. TBI severity ranges from mild (e.g., concussions) to severe (e.g., brain lacerations).
Visual Agnosia: Inability to recognize or interpret visual information, even though eyesight is intact. Often due to occipital lobe damage.
Simultanagnosia: A visual processing disorder where a person can only perceive one object or aspect of a scene at a time.
Alogia: A poverty of speech that results from dysfunction in the brain’s language areas, often seen in schizophrenia.
Anhedonia: Loss of interest or pleasure in activities once found enjoyable. Common in depressive episodes.
Avolition: Lack of motivation or ability to initiate and persist in goal-directed behavior.
Blunted Affect: Significantly diminished emotional expression.
Catatonia: A state of psycho-motor immobility and behavioral abnormality, which can include stupor or repetitive movements.
Delusion: A false belief held with strong conviction despite clear contradictory evidence.
Delusion of Grandeur: A belief that one has exceptional power, wealth, or fame.
Delusional Disorder: A psychotic disorder marked by the presence of persistent delusions without other major symptoms of schizophrenia and minimal functional impairment.
Disorganized Behavior: Behavior that is not goal-directed or appropriate to the situation, often appearing bizarre or purposeless.
Disorganized Speech: Incoherent or illogical speech, often reflecting disorganized thinking.
Echolalia: Pathological repetition of another person’s spoken words.
Erotomania: A delusional belief that another person, often of higher status, is in love with the individual.
Flat Affect: A severe reduction in emotional expressiveness.
Folie à Deux (Shared Psychotic Disorder): A rare disorder in which a delusional belief is transmitted from one person to another, typically within a close relationship.
Hallucination: A sensory perception experienced in the absence of an external stimulus, such as hearing voices or seeing things that aren’t there.
Jealous Delusion: A false and fixed belief that one’s romantic partner is unfaithful, despite a lack of evidence.
Loose Associations: A thought disorder in which ideas shift from one topic to another with little or no logical connection.
Major Depressive Episode: A period of at least two weeks marked by depressed mood or loss of interest, along with other symptoms such as fatigue or sleep disturbances.
Mood Episode: A discrete period characterized by a manic, depressive, or mixed emotional state.
Negative Symptoms: Symptoms that reflect a reduction or absence of normal functioning, such as flat affect or alogia.
Paranoia: An irrational and persistent sense that others are threatening or attempting to harm the individual.
Persecutory Delusions: A belief that one is being harmed, harassed, or plotted against by others.
Positive Symptoms: Additions or distortions of normal mental functioning, including hallucinations and delusions.
Prodromal Phase: The early stage of schizophrenia marked by subtle symptoms before full psychotic episodes emerge.
Psychosis: A mental state marked by a loss of contact with reality, often involving delusions and hallucinations.
Psychotic Symptoms: Features such as hallucinations or delusions that signal a disconnection from reality.
Residual Phase: The stage of schizophrenia following the active phase, where major symptoms lessen but some may persist.
Schizoaffective Disorder: A mental disorder characterized by symptoms of both schizophrenia and mood disorders, with psychotic symptoms occurring independently of mood episodes.
Schizophrenia Spectrum: A group of disorders including schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, delusional disorder, and related psychotic conditions.
Shared Psychotic Disorder: See Folie à Deux.
Simultanagnosia: A visual processing disorder where a person can only perceive one object or aspect of a scene at a time.
Somatic Delusion: A false belief about the body, such as being infested with parasites or emitting a foul odor.
Tangentiality: A pattern of speech in which the speaker wanders from the topic and never returns to the original point.
Thought Broadcasting: A delusional belief that one’s thoughts are being broadcast or transmitted so others can hear them.
Thought Withdrawal: A delusion in which the person believes external forces are removing thoughts from their mind.
Word Salad: A jumble of incoherent and meaningless speech, as if the words were randomly mixed.
Altruistic Suicide: Suicide committed for the perceived benefit of others or to fulfill a perceived duty, common in highly integrated societies.
Anomic Suicide: Suicide resulting from a breakdown in social norms or sudden changes, such as financial ruin or societal disruption.
Copycat Suicide: A suicide that occurs after exposure to another person’s suicide, often influenced by media or publicized events.
Crisis Intervention: Short-term emergency counseling aimed at stabilizing individuals experiencing acute psychological distress.
Durkheim’s Theory of Suicide: A sociological theory proposing that suicide is influenced by levels of social integration and regulation.
Egoistic Suicide: Suicide resulting from a sense of not belonging or feeling detached from society or community.
Interpersonal Theory of Suicide: A psychological model suggesting that suicide occurs when individuals feel like a burden and lack social belonging.
Joiner’s Three-Part Theory: A model proposing that suicide risk arises from perceived burdensomeness, thwarted belongingness, and acquired capability for suicide.
Lethality: The potential of a suicidal act to result in death, based on method, timing, and circumstances.
Means Restriction: A suicide prevention strategy that involves limiting access to lethal tools or environments.
Non-Suicidal Self-Injury (NSSI): Deliberate self-inflicted harm without intent to die, often used to regulate emotional pain.
Perceived Burdensomeness: The belief that one’s existence is a burden to others, increasing suicide risk.
Postvention: Support and interventions provided to individuals affected by someone else’s suicide, aiming to prevent contagion and facilitate healing.
Protective Factors: Personal or environmental strengths that reduce suicide risk, such as strong relationships and effective coping skills.
Psychological Autopsy: A retrospective examination of a deceased person’s life to understand mental health and contextual factors contributing to their suicide.
Safety Plan: A personalized, step-by-step strategy to manage suicidal thoughts and stay safe during a crisis.
Self-Harm: Intentional injury to one’s own body without the goal of suicide, often to relieve emotional distress.
Suicidal Ideation: Thoughts about wanting to die or considering suicide, ranging from fleeting to persistent.
Suicidal Intent: The seriousness or determination behind an individual’s desire to end their life.
Suicidal Plan: A formulated and specific strategy for how an individual intends to end their life.
Suicidality: An umbrella term that encompasses suicidal thoughts, plans, behaviors, and attempts.
Thwarted Belongingness: A deep sense of social disconnection or isolation, believed to be a key component in suicidal desire.