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MENTAL CONDITIONS
Medicene | Medical Conditions | Mental Conditions
There are three main classes of psychiatric condition: neurosis, psychosis and organic diseases. A neurosis is feeling of distress and anxiety. The patient is usually aware of the condition. A psychosis is a distortion of reality often combined with bizarre behaviour. The patient is not usually aware of the condition. Organic conditions are those such as delirium and dementia.
amnesia. Inability to remember.
anxiety. An irrational fear often without an obvious physical reason for the anxiety.
apathy. Absence of emotion.
catatonia. Schizophrenic condition where the patient is unresponsive to external stimuli.
delirium. Short term state of mental confusion, hallucinations or unconsciousness initiated by poisons, drugs, narcotics etc.
delusion. A fixed idea held by the patient in variance to those ideas and beliefs held by the majority.
dementia. Long term deterioration of the brain. Often associated with old age.
depression. Depression can be psychotic or neurotic. A psychotic depression is a distortion of beliefs and perceptions. A neurotic depression is a feeling of gloom and inadequacy.
elation. High spirits associated with mania.
hysteria. A neurosis. An emotional outburst that is often a release from an intolerable situation.
mania. Psychotic condition of elation, emotion and obsessive behaviour.
manic depressive. Uncontrolled psychosis cycling between depression and elation.
obsession. Neurotic condition. Ritualised behaviour often associated with hygiene.
paranoia. Delusions often of grandeur or persecution.
phobia. Anxiety triggered by an object or situation. Common phobias for example include: spiders, dirt, people, the outside, heights and small enclosed places.
schizophrenia. Psychosis. A deterioration of the personality coupled with the belief that one's thoughts and actions are not one's owns.
