Category: M

A proposed disorder (listed in dsm-ivtr appendix b, “criteria sets and axes provided for further study”) characterized by one or more periods of depressive symptoms that are identical to major depressive episodes in duration but that involve fewer symptoms and less impairment. Contrast with recurrent brief depressive disorder.  

A personality questionnaire of 567 true or false statements that is frequently used to assess personality styles and types. It was developed at the University of Minnesota in 1940 and revised in the early 1990s; hence, now it is known as the MMPI-2. Its primary use is to understand the psychiatric symptoms and personality characteristics…

Brand name for the antihypertensive drug prazosin.  

A screening test for cognitive dysfunction that is frequently used by consultation psychiatrists when assessing patients hospitalized in a general hospital who develop psychiatric disorders. A test performed mainly by psychiatrists to determine someone’s mental ability, used in the diagnosis of dementia. A commonly used assessment tool to quantify a person’s cognitive ability. It assesses…

An older term, currently out of favor, for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). A disturbance of children, adolescents, and perhaps adults, without signs of major neurological or psychiatric disturbance. Characterized by decreased attention span, distractibility, in- creased activity, impulsivity, emotional lability, poor motor integration, disturbances in perception and disorders of language development. A group of conditions characterized…

Brand name (now discontinued) for the nonbenzodiazepine sedative-hypnotic drug meprobamate. A commercial preparation of the first minor tranquilizer developed in 1952.  

A serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor (SNRI) antidepressant medication approved to treat major depressive disorder and fibromyalgia. Marketed under the brand name savella.  

Socioenvironmental therapy in which the attitudes and behavior of the staff of a treatment service and the activities prescribed for the patients are determined by the patients’ emotional and interpersonal needs. This therapy is an essential part of all inpatient treatment. A treatment procedure in which the total environment of a treatment facility, the patients…

A diagnosis given to individuals who have cognitive impairment that is beyond what would be expected for their age and education but that does not interfere significantly with their daily activities. MCI is considered to represent the transitional stage between normal aging and dementia. A subjectively sensed, and objectively verifiable, loss of memory that may…

The set of problems that arise when individuals discover visible signs that they are aging and become preoccupied with the realization. The period of emotional upheaval noted among some midlife persons as they struggle with the finality of death and the nature of their past and future accomplishments. An intense, temporary pattern of disturbing feelings,…