Month: August 2020
-
Not-for-profit hospital
A hospital which exists for the purpose of public service, rather than for the profit of its owners. Such a hospital may be partly or wholly publicly owned. Also called a voluntary hospital.
-
Nightmare (dream anxiety attack)
Anxiety-provoking dream occurring during REM sleep. Contrast with sleep terror disorder.
-
National alliance for the mentally III (NAMI)
An organization whose membership consists of parents and relatives of mentally ill patients and former patients whose main objective is for better and more sustained care. Its trustees and chapter officers engage in active lobbying and in education projects.
-
Munchhausen syndrome (pathomimicry)
A rare, difficult to treat disorder. Sufferers habitually attempt to hospitalize themselves with self-defined or self-induced pathology, yearning for a surgical remedy. No definitive etiology has been established. In DSM-III-R, this syndrome is diagnosed as chronic factitious disorder with physical symptoms. Patients with this disorder demonstrate factitious medical or psychiatric symptoms with awareness that they…
-
Multiple personality
A term used by Morton Prince for a rare type of dissociative reaction in which the person adopts two or more personalities. In DSM-III-R, classified as a dissociative disorder. A rare neurosis, characterized by the person developing more than one distinct personality. The personalities are usually in traits. These are representative of competing motives of…
-
Molecular psychiatry
A science that deals specifically with brain chemicals that are released in minute quantities by one neuron to mediate its communication with other neurons.
-
Mitchell, S. Weir (1830-1914)
American neurologist who described causalgia and developed a once popular “rest cure” for emotional disorders.
-
Mid-life crisis
The set of problems that arise when individuals discover visible signs that they are aging and become preoccupied with the realization. A period in early middle age when some people experience feelings of anxiety, insecurity and self-doubt. A colloquial description of the feelings of anxiety and distress experienced by some individuals in early middle age. They…
-
MHPG (3-methoxy-4-hydroxphenylglycol)
A major metabolite of brain norepinephrine excreted in urine.
-
Meyer, Adolf (1866-1950)
American psychiatrist, professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University; introduced the concept of psycho-biology.