Category: D

A tricyclic antidepressant medication used in the treatment of depression. Marketed under the brand name norpramin. Heterocyclic antidepressant Norpramin is a brand name. An antidepressant drug. Desipramine (Norpramin) is prescribed to treat depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and bulimia nervosa, an eating disorder. A tricyclic antidepressant drug administered by mouth or injection; common side-effects are dry mouth,…

Addictive drugs that are synthesized or manufactured to give the same subjective effects as well-known illicit drugs. Because the process is covert and illegal, tracing the manufacturer to check the drugs for adverse effects is difficult. Common examples are ecstasy and “Eve,” both of which are similar to amphetamines. A drug that has been modified…

A system of psychiatry based on the study of readily observable external factors. Often used to refer to the systematized descriptions of mental illness formulated by emil kraepelin (1856–1926). Contrast with dynamic psychiatry.  

A disorder (classified as an impulse-control disorder not otherwise specified [nos] in dsm-iv-tr) in which the patient inflicts excessive scratching, picking, and squeezing on healthy skin. May be a symptom of a variety of psychiatric disorders, including stereotypic movement disorder, body dysmorphic disorder (bdd), and tourette’s disorder. Many patients with dermatillomania have a comorbid mood,…

Referring to mental activity that is not in accordance with reality, logic, or experience. Thinking in which the person ignores reality and logical organization. A term often applied to irrational schizophrenia fantasies.    

A feeling of estrangement or detachment from one’s environment. May be accompanied by depersonalization. Loss of the sense that surroundings are real. It is present in several psychological disorders, e.g., panic disorder, depersonalization, and schizophrenia. The perception that the environment is unreal. The individual feels separated from the surroundings, as if he or she were…

An inexact term referring to the psychology of unconscious mental processes. Also a system of psychology in which the study of such processes plays a major role, as in psychoanalysis. The psychology of unconscious behavior, as opposed to the psychology of conscious behavior.  

A term applied by Melanie Klein (1882–1960) and her followers to the stage of development that peaks about the sixth month of life. The infant begins to FEAR destroying and losing the beloved object and wants to appease it and preserve it.  

Includes disorders with depressive features that do not meet criteria for major depressive disorder, dysthymic disorder, or adjustment disorder with depressed mood (or with mixed anxiety and depressed mood) or depressive symptoms about which there is inadequate or contradictory information.