Category: M

  • Moral treatment

    A philosophy and technique of treating mental patients that began to prevail in the first half of the nineteenth century that emphasized removal of restraints, humane and kindly care, attention to religion, and performance by the patients of useful tasks in the hospital.  

  • Moral reconation therapy (MRT)

    Developed in 1985 by Gregory Little and Kenneth Robinson, this systematic treatment strategy seeks to decrease recidivism among juvenile and adult criminal and substance ABUSE offenders by increasing moral reasoning. It is a longterm approach focused on changing the criminal thought processes of convicted felons.  

  • Mood swing

    Fluctuation of a person’s emotional tone between periods of elation and periods of depression.  

  • Mood stabilizers

    A group of medications that includes lithium carbonate, certain anticonvulsants, and the atypical antipsychotics. Mood stabilizers are believed to function at the receptor or intracellular level to prevent the onset of mania or depression in bipolar disorder and are effective in treating the symptoms of mania. Any agent or therapy that prevents or relieves wide…

  • Mood disorders

    In dsm-iv-tr, this category includes depressive disorders, bipolar disorders, mood disorder due to a general medical condition, and substance-induced (intoxication or withdrawal) mood disorder. A DSM-III-R term for major affective disorders. A general classification of mental disorders that involve prolonged disturbance of mood, coloring the person’s outlook, such as depression and bipolar disorders (popularly called…

  • Mood disorder due to a general medical condition

    Secondary mood disorder; prominent and persistent depression (with depressed mood or loss of interest or pleasure) or mania (elevated, expansive, or irritable mood), or both, associated with a medical condition classified outside the ICD-10 list of mental disorders.  

  • Mood

    Pervasive and sustained emotion. A pervasive and sustained emotion that, in the extreme, markedly colors one’s perception of the world. Common examples of mood include depression, elation, and anger. Moderate changes in emotions. A person’s mental state at a particular time. The pervasive, long-lasting emotional state that shapes how a person sees his or her…

  • Monozygotic twins

    Monozygotic twins

    Twins who develop from a single fertilized ovum; identical twins. Often referred to as MZ twins, in contrast to DZ twins (dizygotic twins). Twins developing from a single fertilized egg that splits in half at an early stage of cleavage and develops into two complete fetuses. Monozygotic twins are always of the same sex, have…

  • Monotherapy

    Use of a single medication or therapy to treat a disease or disorder. Contrast with combination treatment. Treatment with a single drug, for example, a single antihypertensive agent.  

  • Monocultural ethnocentrism

    An assumption that an individual’s cultural way of doing things is the only correct way and all other ways have no value.