User:Kbinferno

Social Readjustment Rating Scale: This instrument is based on the premise that good and bad events in one's life can increase stress levels and make one more susceptible to illness and mental health problems. Events rank in points from 11 to 100 and range from violating laws to the death of a spouse. Psychophysiological (Psychosomatic) Disorders: A group of disorders characterized by physical symptoms that are affected by emotional factors and involve a single organ system, usually under autonomic nervous system control. Skin disorders and stress: Studies involving mice showed how a stress-triggered hormone could worsen or even cause skin disorders, such as psoriasis and eczema. Blocking the hormone called "glucocorticoid", which increases during stress, resulted in better skin in for the mice. Type A Personality: The Type A and Type B personality theory is a personality type theory that describes a pattern of behaviors that were once considered to be a risk factor for coronary heart disease. Type A individuals can be described as impatient, time-conscious, highly competitive, and are sometimes disliked by individuals with Type B personalities for the way that they're always rushing. Migraine Headaches: The typical migraine headache is unilateral and pulsating, lasting from 4 to 72 hours; symptoms include nausea, vomiting, photophobia, and phonophobia. Approximately one-third of people who suffer migraine headache perceive an aura. Ulcers and stress: Severe stress, such as that experienced by patients with substantial burns or critical illness in intensive care units, creates a very high risk for the development of specific stress ulcers of the stomach. Colitis and stress: When someone is under stress, the gets ready for a fight-or-flight response by secreting certain hormones, including adrenalin. They stimulate the immune system, which triggers inflammation. In people whose ulcerative colitis is in remission, this sets the stage for the return of their symptoms, known as a flare-up. Irritable Bowel Syndrome: Irritable bowel syndrome (also known as a spastic colon), is a functional bowel disorder characterized by chronic abdominal pain, discomfort, bloating, and alteration of bowel habits in the absence of any detectable organic cause. In some cases, the symptoms are relieved by bowel movements. Esophageal Reflux: Acid reflux disease is defined as chronic symptoms or mucosal damage produced by the abnormal reflux in the esophagus. This is commonly due to transient or permanent changes in the barrier between the esophagus and the stomach. Asthma and stress: Stress is a common asthma trigger. When stress levels go up, asthma symptoms can go into overdrive. Hiccups and stress: Stress is a very common trigger for short-term hiccups. Hiccups that last more than 48 hours may be caused by a variety of factors. Hyperventilation: In medicine, hyperventilation is the state of breathing faster and/or deeper than necessary, bringing about lightheadedness and other undesirable symptoms often associated with panic attacks. Tension headaches: Tension headaches are the most common type of headaches among adults. They are commonly referred to as stress headaches. Tension headaches usually don't keep a person from performing daily tasks. Urination and stress: Stress itself can increase the need to urinate. Stress can also cause the immune system to be less effective, possible resulting in a urinary tract infection. Stress and colds: Cancer and stress: Research is being conducted to further investigate the link between cancer and stress, but this thought did spark a new find: it now appears that cancer cells make proteins that actually tell the immune system to let them alone and even to help them grow. Stress and AIDs: UCLA AIDS Institute research in 2001 revealed that stress enables HIV to spread more quickly in infected persons and prevents anti-retroviral drugs from restoring immune system function. Hans Seyle: Hans Hugo Bruno Selye did much important factual work on the hypothetical non-specific response of the organism to stressors. General Adaptation Syndrome: Seyle found that all animals display a similar sequence of reactions to stress, manifesting in three distinct stages: Alarm (makes adrenaline), resistance (coping), and exhaustion (resource depletion). Locus of control: Locus of control is a term in psychology that refers to a person's belief about what causes the good or bad results in his life, either in general or in a specific area such as health or academics. Meditation: Meditation is used as a broad term for practices done by a sole practitioner without much, if any, external aid, often for the purpose of self-transformation.

Trephining: This is a medical intervention in which a hole is drilled or scraped into the human skull, exposing the dura mater, a layer of the brain, in order to treat health problems related to intracranial diseases. Exorcism: This is the practice of evicting demons or other spiritual entities from a person or place which they are believed to have possessed. Hippocrates: He was an ancient Greek physician of the Age of Pericles, and was considered one of the most outstanding figures in the history of medicine. Bedlam: A psychiatric hospital in Bromley, London. Although no longer in its original location and buildings, it is recognised as the world's first and oldest institution to specialise in the mentally ill. Philippe Pinel: He was a French physician who was instrumental in the development of a more humane psychological approach to the custody and care of psychiatric patients. He also made notable contributions to the classification of mental disorders. DSM: The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) is published by the American Psychiatric Association and provides diagnostic criteria for mental disorders. Mood (affective disorders): A mood is a relatively long lasting emotional state. Moods differ from simple emotions in that they are less specific, less intense, and less likely to be triggered by a particular stimulus or event. Depression: This is a mental disorder characterized by an all-encompassing low mood accompanied by low self-esteem, and loss of interest or pleasure in normally enjoyable activities. Bipolar (Manic-Depressive): Bipolar disorder is a psychiatric diagnosis that describes a category of mood disorders defined by the presence of one or more episodes of abnormally elevated mood clinically referred to as mania or, if milder, hypomania. Learned Helplessness: This term means a condition of a human being or an animal in which it has learned to behave helplessly, even when the opportunity is restored for it to help itself by avoiding an unpleasant or harmful circumstance to which it has been subjected. Panic Disorder: This is an anxiety disorder characterized by recurring severe panic attacks. Generalized Anxiety Disorder: GAD is an anxiety disorder that is characterized by excessive, uncontrollable and often irrational worry about everyday things that is disproportionate to the actual source of worry. OCD (Obsessive-Compulsive): OCD is a mental disorder characterized by intrusive thoughts that produce anxiety, by repetitive behaviors aimed at reducing anxiety, or by combinations of such thoughts (obsessions) and behaviors (compulsions). PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress): PTSD is a severe anxiety disorder that can develop after exposure to any event which results in psychological trauma. This event may involve the threat of death to oneself or to someone else, or to one's own or someone else's physical, sexual, or psychological integrity, overwhelming the individual's psychological defenses. Conversion Disorder: This is a condition where patients are present with neurological symptoms such as numbness, paralysis, or fits, but positive physical signs of hysteria can be found. Hypochondriasis: This refers to an excessive preoccupation or worry about having a serious illness. Munchausen Syndrome: This is a term for psychiatric disorders where those affected fake disease, illness, or psychological trauma in order to draw attention or sympathy to themselves. Munchausen by proxy: MBPS is a relatively uncommon condition that involves the exaggeration or fabrication of illnesses or symptoms by a primary caretaker. Body Dysmorphic Disorder: BDD is an anxiety disorder in which the affected person is excessively concerned about and preoccupied by a perceived defect in his or her physical features/body image. Dissociative Disorders: These are defined as conditions that involve disruptions or breakdowns of memory, awareness, identity and/or perception. Antisocial personality (sociopath): This is a pervasive pattern of disregard for, and violation of, the rights of others that begins in childhood or early adolescence and continues into adulthood. Paranoid personality: This is a psychiatric diagnosis characterized by paranoia and a pervasive, long-standing suspiciousness and generalized mistrust of others. Schizoid personality: This is a personality disorder characterized by a lack of interest in social relationships, a tendency towards a solitary lifestyle, secretiveness, and emotional coldness. Avoidant personality: This is a personality disorder in a person over the age of eighteen years as characterized by a pervasive pattern of social inhibition, feelings of inadequacy, extreme sensitivity to negative evaluation, and avoidance of social interaction. Narcissistic personality: This is a personality disorder defined as as a pervasive pattern of grandiosity, need for admiration, and a lack of empathy. Histrionic personality: This is defined as a personality disorder characterized by a pattern of excessive emotionality and attention-seeking, including an excessive need for approval and inappropriate seductiveness, usually beginning in early adulthood. Schizotypal personality: This is a personality disorder that is characterized by a need for social isolation, odd behavior and thinking, and often unconventional beliefs. Dependent personality: This is a personality disorder that is characterized by a pervasive psychological dependence on other people. Borderline personality: This is a personality disorder described as a prolonged disturbance of personality function in a person over the age of eighteen years, characterized by depth and variability of moods.

Psychotherapy: This is an intentional interpersonal relationship used by trained psychotherapists to aid a client or patient in problems of living. It aims to increase the individual's sense of their own well-being. Psychoanalysis: This is a body of ideas primarily devoted to the study of human psychological functioning and behavior, although it also can be applied to societies. Free association: In free association, psychoanalytic patients are invited to relate whatever comes into their minds during the analytic session, and not to censor their thoughts. This technique is intended to help the patient learn more about what he or she thinks and feels, in an atmosphere of non-judgmental curiosity and acceptance. Manifest vs. latent content of a dream: Transference in therapy: This is a phenomenon in psychoanalysis characterized by unconscious redirection of feelings for one person to another. One definition of transference is "the inappropriate repetition in the present of a relationship that was important in a person's childhood." Catharsis: Most commonly in a medical context, it euphemistically refers to a purging of the bowels. A drug, herb, or other agent administered as a strong laxative is termed a cathartic. Client-centered (nondirective) therapy - Carl Rogers: In this technique, therapists create a comfortable, non-judgemental environment by demonstrating congruence (genuineness), empathy, and unconditional positive regard toward their patients while using a non-directive approach. This aids patients in finding their own solutions to their problems. Cognitive-behavioral therapy:Ths is a psychotherapeutic approach that aims to solve problems concerning dysfunctional emotions, behaviors and cognitions through a goal-oriented, systematic procedure. Psychodrama:This is a form of human development which explores, through dramatic action, the problems, issues, concerns, dreams and highest aspirations of people, groups, systems and organizations. It is mostly used as a group work method, in which each person in the group can become a therapeutic agent for each other in the group. Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT): This is a well-established, albeit controversial, psychiatric treatment in which seizures are electrically induced in anesthetized patients for therapeutic effect. Transcranial stimulation: This is a noninvasive method to excite neurons in the brain: weak electric currents are induced in the tissue by rapidly changing magnetic fields. This way, brain activity can be triggered with minimal discomfort, and the functionality of the circuitry and connectivity of the brain can be studied.