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Terms and definitions

  • ADHD: (attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder): a syndrome of disordered learning and disruptive behavior. Symptoms may include inattentiveness, hyperactivity, and impulsive behavior.


  • Anxiety disorders: encompassing various disorders – panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, phobias, or generalized anxiety disorder – in which anxiety is a primary feature. Also called also anxiety neurosis or anxiety state.


  • Bipolar disorder: characterized by alternating episodes of depression and mania (excitement). Also called bipolar affective disorder, bipolar illness, manic depression, manic-depressive psychosis.


  • Eating disorders: any of the disorders involving food or eating. These include anorexia nervosa – an obsession with personal control resulting in excessive thinness; bulimia nervosa – eating large amounts of food and then purging through vomiting; compulsive overeating – out-of-control eating behavior not accompanied by purging.

  • Neurosis: a mental disorder affecting only part of the personality and accompanied by various physical, physiological, and mental disturbances.


  • Obsessive/compulsive disorder: condition characterized by excessive worries, doubts, superstitious believes, repeated “checking on things,” thoughts that get “stuck,” and a general breakdown in mental processing.


  • Psychopharmacology: the administration of and study of drugs used to treat psychiatric illnesses.


  • Psychosis: a serious disorder usually accompanied by lost contact with reality, hallucinations, or delusions.


  • Schizophrenia: a psychotic disorder that involves loss of contact with the environment, deterioration in the level of every-day functioning, and disintegration of personality. Also called dementia praecox.