Glossary of terms
Absenteeism: to complete a previously normal behavior. For example, in this context, truancy refers to not going to school.
Abuse: disproportionate excess use. For example, alcohol abuse means excessive use of alcohol.
Activation: Preparation for action. In this context, it is a warning. With the body and mind ready to act.
Acute: a reference to time signaling a temporary or short-term evolution of a process (disorder, episode, illness, symptom ...). It usually involves something that lasted, is lasting or will last for a period of days (usually less than a month).
ADHD: Attention-Deficit / Hyperactivity Disorder or Attention Deficit Disorder and Hyperactivity.
Adherence to treatment: following instructions of the therapist in relation to treatment, and compliance with taking medication.
Adolescence: stage of development in which involves the passage from childhood to adulthood. Generally ranging from 13-14 years of age to 18-20 years of age. It involves numerous changes in the person physically, psychologically and socially.
Affect / Affective: feelings of closeness and affection toward another person. The term refers to emotional affection, i.e., feelings of closeness and affection to someone. Technically affect is also used to refer to everything related to feelings, emotions or moods (i.e., affect disorder).
Aggressiveness: the use of violence in interactions with someone or something. This could occur in the interaction with oneself, which is termed auto-aggressiveness.
Agitation: psychomotor state of extreme anxiety during which an individual does not have proper control of his or her behavior, which makes them a risk to himself/herself and / or others (sometimes may precede or accompany aggressiveness).
Anxiety: a subjective feeling of apprehension and fear accompanied by physical symptoms like shortness of breath, trembling, palpitations, accelerated heart rate, etc., which occurs without any apparent external stimulus or stimuli causing it that do not usually produce such an exaggerated response in most people.
Atomoxetine: drug used for ADHD. Not in the family of stimulants, having a pharmacological profile similar to that of antidepressants, i.e. they need to be taken every day, and the onset of their effect takes about two-three weeks.
Attention: cognitive ability that allows the connection of one with their environment through three core functions: alertness, orientation and executive function (conflict resolution).
Attitude: predisposition to something. For example, an agreeable attitude means that a person is willing to cooperate.
Avoidance: behavior aimed at not confronting something. In this context, is used in reference to not confronting problems or difficult situations.
Awareness of illness: degree to which someone knows that he or she is ill. Is said to be high when the patient clearly understands that he or she is sick and what the illness is. It would be low if the patient does not admit he or she is sick or if a person has a problem that he or she does not attribute to the illness they have been diagnosed with).
Biography: a set of experiences of a person throughout his or her life.
Bipolar: refers to two contrasting states, in our context it involves extreme mood states: depression and mania (euphoria). If we talk about bipolar disorder we are referring to a disorder characterized by alternating episodes of Euthymia (normal mood), depression and mania (or cyclothymia, which is similar to manic symptoms but is less severe).
Bipolarity: bipolar condition. In medicine, the alternating extreme moods of euphoria or anger to sadness. To be considered a pathological entity, i.e. a disorder, it is necessary that these changes occur with a certain intensity and duration.
Bond: process that takes place between two people who are associated with eachother. It is a commitment within the relationship between two or more persons.
Breakdown: a loss of functionality in which the individual is unable to cope with the usual demands of daily life, loss of a previous state of stability.
Catatonia: encompasses a range of motor disorders including motor immobility or the adoption of unusual postures. Sometimes it can be expressed in the form of excessive motor activity or restlessness.
Chronic: a time reference that indicates the long-term evolution of a process (condition, episode, illness, symptom ...). It usually implies that it has lasted, is lasting or will take years.
Cognitive: the ability to think and so-called higher mental functions (i.e. memory, attention, recognition of stimuli). There is a type of cognitive psychotherapy that focuses on thoughts that are "badly learned" and they must be reformulated to have an impact on behavior (CBT: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy).
Compensation: see "stability"
Concerta: is one of the names of methylphenidate- extended release (see definition in the glossary below).
Conduct: related to behavior. There is a type of psychotherapy that focuses on behavior modification.
Course: evolution of the illness
Crisis: in the course of an illness, a crisis is a stage of intensification or an increase in symptoms. A particularly difficult period.
Delusions: Ideas and beliefs or a set of ideas that meet the following characteristics: they are false, impossible to refute using logic and appear pathological (as opposed to traditional or religious beliefs that are set are influenced by culture or social tradition) Depression: a syndrome characterized by profound sadness and a significant loss of interest in things. Usually accompanied by other symptoms such as loss of energy, appetite or sleep disturbances. Also common are feelings of guilt, shame, pathological pessimism, and so on.
Disorganized behavior: inappropriate behavior with regard to the context (suddenly, moving about and being confused or sitting down and staring, as if immobilized).
Disorganized language: incoherent and nonsensical language.
Dual bond: in this context, the dual bond refers to the transmission of contradictory information through various channels of communication. For instance, it occurs when we verbally transmit content and non-verbally transmit content that is the exact opposite. It is presented as factor favoring the emergence of psychosis.
Emotion: a usually intense expression, with a more or less acute presentation and one that is always accompanied by physical manifestations (ex. crying).
Emotional climate: type and quality of relationships among family members.
Empathy: the ability to understand how another person feels, to put oneself in another’s place and understand. It is sometimes used as an ability to connect with others.
Environment: surroundings around something or someone, in addition to the physical surface, psychological and social components.
Episode: the period in which symptoms of the illness are evident. Euphoria: excessive joy and sense of exaggerated well being. Usually accompanied by great optimism.
Evolution: it occurs throughout the development of something (ex. an illness). It is also often used in the field of medicine and psychology to refer to the progress of the developmental phases of a person.
Family dynamics: usual pattern of interactions that take place within a family.
Functional adaptation: the process of returning to a level of functioning different to a previous one, having a significant event or circumstance occurring in-between each level (i.e. illness or stressful life events).
Hallucination: a perception without an object. i.e., seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting or feeling something through touch with no real stimulus for the trigger.
Healthy habits: a set of customs based on the promotion of health.
Holistic: It is the way to approach a reality as a comprehensive whole, as opposed to the mere sum of its component parts.
Hyperactivity: in a clinical context it refers to continuous and disruptive psychomotor restlessness, and is associated with negative connotations. Outside this context it can refer to highly diverse and productive activity that generally have positive connotations.
Hyperthymia: very elevated mood.
Hypomania: Mania with attenuated/lessened symptoms. See mania.
Impulse / impulsivity: is an act that is done without prior assessment of the consequences. Impulsivity is the tendency to perform behaviors without having previously assessed the effects of the same. If the consequences are ultimately negative, and done habitually, the impulsivity may be a psychiatric symptom.
Individuation: the process by which an individual manages to establish itself as opposed to others and differing significantly from them. In this context, it refers to one of the processes of human development that typically occurs during adolescence.
Insomnia: sleep disturbance, consisting of a reduction of it. It may be of conciliation, of maintenance or "early rising". It is often an accompanying symptom of many illnesss or occurs during periods of stress or extreme fatigue.
Interaction: mutual relationship between two or more elements.
Interpersonal: relations between people. There is a psychotherapy which focuses on the patient's difficulties in forming relationships with others, interpersonal psychotherapy.
Mania: elevated mood that is accompanied by alterations in behavior and thinking. Highlighted are hyperactivity, over-confident in abilities, less need for sleep, increased appetite, sexuality and costs, etc.
Medical history: a set of data concerning the patient's life with an emphasis on health aspects. Is the set of records of the health status of a patient. It should include major events such as surgery, illness requiring treatment, medications that have been tried, allergies, family history, etc..
Medication adjustment: a change in the delivery pattern of medication generally an increase or decrease in any dose and / or the removal/addition of any new drug.
Medikinet: one of the commercial names of methylphenidate extended release (see definition in the glossary below).
Mental disorder: illness that affects behavior, thoughts and the ability to make decisions. It is associated with a discomfort (ex. pain), disability (ex. impairment in one or more areas of functioning) or a risk of pain, disability or loss of autonomy.
Methylphenidate: name of a drug (active ingredient) most commonly used to treat ADHD. It belongs to the group of stimulants, usually takes action for a few hours (3-6, in the forms of normal release Rubifen and 8-12 in the forms of extended release as Concerta or Medikinet). Its end products are removed from the body in less than two days usually.
Motor symptoms: those in which the motor system is compromised, that is the one responsible for movement (motion, coordination, etc.).
Negative Symptoms: The manifestations of psychosis involving a decrease or loss of abilities or functions that existed in the individual before becoming ill (ex. abulia: lack of will or preference)
Nonverbal communication: communication component that does not include words. Include gestures, glances, postures, movements, tone of voice, etc.
Opposition: The attitude of active resistance and contrary to those you requested or expected of someone.
Outbreak: each of the episodes of an illness that follows with relapses and periods of stability that can cause some degree of functional impairment between them (i.e., schizophrenia, rheumatoid arthritis) It is also used to refer to the start of an illness in a person or a population (i.e. outbreak of meningitis). See "phase."
Overprotection: Pattern of conduct that exceeds the amount necessary care for a person in order to avoid a real or imagined suffering and discomfort that usually accompanies the difficulties and problems of everyday life. An educational model superprotector phenomena may interfere with the autonomy and individuation of the individual development. Usually it is a normal reaction that is generated in the relatives of sick people (especially when they are children or adolescents) Palpitations: The subjective sensation of consciously making the heartbeat in the chest area
Patient compliance: see "adherence."
Perception: a phenomenon of collecting and processing stimuli.
Phase: an episode of an illness that has extended periods of stability and others of relapse. Usually used to name a relapse of bipolar disorder or affective disorders (see "outbreak").
Phobia: an irrational fear of something
Phobic disorder: see "Phobia"
Physiologic: on the physical (body). It is also used in medicine to refer to something that happens in a natural way, as opposed to pathological.
Positive symptoms: used to refer to productive manifestations of psychosis that would not happen if the illness did not exist (ex. hallucination)
Prejudice: Opinion on something that is not known, based on indirect information. In this context, it refers to what is expected from an intervention that is not really known, in terms of an experience we have been told about or have read about or simply guessed at (ex. about a specific medication or a person).
Prodrome: Early symptoms, attenuated and nonspecific that happen before a crisis. Its knowledge allows one to anticipate crises that might occur and allow them to try to provide the means to prevent it.
Prognosis: prediction of the development and evolution of an illness based on symptoms that have preceded or accompanied it. Prediction about the duration and termination. Generally described as good, bad, regular, ...
Promiscuity: sexual conduct with little or no selection where an individual has relations with multiple people over time.
Protective factor: that which safeguards the patient from suffering from an illness or a crisis (in who already suffers from an illness), or at least influences to make the symptoms less.
Psychosis: Illness characterized by the loss of the criterion of reality that is accompanied by disturbances in mental functioning (cognitive processes and perception), inability to distinguish reality from fantasy, and other behavioral disorders and emotional states. It can be acute or chronic. It can occur at any age.
Rapport: a term of French origin that is used universally to refer to the quality of the doctor-patient relationship. Having a good rapport, is to have connected well with the patient (if you are a doctor or vice versa if you are a patient using the word).
Rebound effect: obtaining the opposite result desired and / or to a particular event (i.e. when administering a relaxant the patient becomes energized).
Recurrence: the symptoms occur again after an interval of stability. The repeated occurrence of crises throughout the course of an illness.
Regulations: referencing rules (norms).
Relapse: recurrence or worsening of symptoms of a disorder or illness, after an improvement.
Resilience: the ability of the subject not to suffer from the illness despite the presence of risk factors (facilitators or triggers). Could be defined as the opposite of vulnerability.
Risk factor: something that facilitates suffering from an illness or crisis or that aggravates the symptoms of it.
Ritual: An established act that an individual carries out for a specific purpose. In this context it refers to the typical symptom of obsessive compulsive disorder in which the patient carries out an act that is more or less complex and strictly organized, with no clear end in itself; rather it is done to indirectly prevent the anxiety that a given situation produces.
Role-play: interpretation of a role in order to practice (training) a particular skill. In this context, it refers to a psychotherapeutic technique with the aim of that described above.
Routine: a repeated performance. In the clinical setting we can use it to refer to the repetition of an identical sequence for completing an action. Usually it is good for people with ADHD because they do not have to think too much to do it and it is done almost automatically, not allowing for so many distractions.
Rubifen: trade name of the drug methylphenidate (see in this glossary), typically used to treat ADHD.
Sedentary: the tendency to remain in the same place for long periods. It also refers to the avoidance of physical exercise and activity.
Self-esteem: subjective assessment that people make of themselves.
Sentiment: internal process that generates a certain emotional charge toward something or someone. There are sensory feelings(pain), vital feelings (ex. vitality), mental feelings (joy, fear, sadness) and spiritual feelings (artistic, religious)
Sign: observable expression of a process that is happening (ex, redness, swelling).
Somatic: referring to the body, the organic, to the physical
Stability: a period, more or less extended over the course of an illness in which the individual does not suffer symptoms or when the symptoms are lessened.
Stereotype: characteristic and repeated pattern.
Stereotypy: stereotypy is a motor, verbal or mental action, which is repeated by the person with a repetitive nature. May consist of postures, words, gestures, movements.
Stigma: signal. In this context, it refers to the marking or social prejudice (fear, distrust, shame, devaluation, etc..) that belongs to an illness or affected individuals (patients and relatives)
Stimulants: drugs that produce activity in people who take them. In people with ADHD they can improve their ability to focus attention, reduce impulsivity and reduced psychomotor restlessness.
Stimulation: the process of generating stimuli. For example, when we call out to someone (auditory stimulation).
Stimulus: something that generates a perception. If someone receives many, we say that a patient is over-stimulated(or hyper-stimulated) if you received very few, say that is hypo-stimulated.
Strattera: name of the drug Atomoxetine.
Stress: a subjective feeling of psychological stress. It is usually caused by Hyper-stimulation and often accompanied by nervousness.
Stressful event: something that happens to generate anxiety and psychological stress.
Subjective: coming from personal experience of the subject, not able to be measured and may not be observed by others.
Susceptibility: the ability of someone or something to have a condition. In a clinical setting is often used to refer how more or less likely it is that an individual has suffered a symptom or a disorder.
Symptom: a subjective expression, therefore not objective, of a process that is occuring (pain, blurred vision, ringing in the ears).
Syndrome: A set of signs and symptoms that characterize a pathological entity.
Tachycardia: heart rate accelerated more than usual (Strictly speaking, more than 120 beats / min).
Therapy: is used to alleviate symptoms. If referring to the use of a drug it is called drug therapy, if it involves the use of words and interpersonal relationships it is usually called psychotherapy, which may be individual, group, family ... In many areas only "therapy" is used to refer to psychotherapy.
Treatment Plan: Guidelines for action, designed by the treatment team for each individual patient
Treatment team: a group of professionals who treat the patient. May include physicians, psychologists, nurses, nursing assistants, o and / physical therapists or social workers.
Vigilance: State of consciousness consisting of being awake
Vulnerability: subject's inability to prevent the illness. It will be higher the easier it is for the person to become sick. Is the tendency of individuals toward illness, or ease with which you are ill, in the presence of risk factors or causes of the illness.
