Category: C

A U.S. federal agency under the U.S. department of health and human service (DHHS) and based in Atlanta, Georgia, the CDC works to protect public health and safety by providing information to enhance health decisions. It focuses national attention on developing and applying disease prevention and control (especially infectious diseases), environmental health, occupational safety and…

A selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) type of antidepressant medication approved to treat depression and also used by clinicians to treat selective anxiety disorders. The brand name for citalopram.    

An elongated, curved mass located within the basal ganglia, the caudate nucleus is an important component of the brain’s learning and memory system, particularly during feedback processing. There is a caudate nucleus within each hemisphere of the brain. A comma-shaped mass of gray matter forming part of the corpus striatum. It is part of the…

A nationwide public health–focused clinical trial that compared the effectiveness of “first generation” (introduced in the 1950s) and “second generation” (available since the 1990s) antipsychotic medications. Phase i of catie analyzed the economic implications of antipsychotic treatment and concluded that the older conventional antipsychotic perphenazine was less expensive and no less effective than the newer…

Attachment, conscious or unconscious, of emotional feeling and significance to an idea, an object, or, most commonly, a person. In transference, patients withdraw their cathexis (or investment) from past figures and reinvest it in the clinician as a new figure. An investment or an object, idea, or action that has special significance or effect for…

The healthful (therapeutic) release of ideas through “talking out” conscious material accompanied by an appropriate emotional reaction. Also, the release into awareness of repressed (“forgotten”) material from the unconscious. A form of emotional release resulting from talking out problems with the aid of a therapist, as applied to psychology. A sudden, often overpowering outpouring of…

An enzyme that degrades and inactivates catecholamines such as dopamine, epinephrine, and norepinephrine. Comt is also important in the metabolism of levodopa (l-dopa), a precursor of dopamine used in the treatment of parkinson’s disease. Comt inhibitors such as entacapone (comtan) inhibit degradation of levodopa, permitting greater and more sustained levels of levodopa to penetrate the…

A geographic area for which a mental health program or facility has responsibility for its residents. A geographic area defined and served by a health program or institution such as a hospital or community mental health center. Delineated on the basis of such factors as population distribution, natural geographic boundaries, and transportation accessibility. Should be…

Catatonic symptoms such as motoric immobility (e.g., catalepsy, cerea flexibilitas), extreme agitation, extreme negativism (e.g., rigidity of posture), and peculiarities of voluntary movement (e.g., inappropriate or bizarre posturing, stereotyped movements, prominent mannerisms) occur because of a general medical condition. This diagnosis emphasizes that catatonic symptoms are not confined to schizophrenic disorders.