A personality disorder marked by a pattern of instability of interpersonal relationships, self-image, and affects, and marked impulsivity beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts. (DSM-IV)

A major deviation from normal patterns of behavior.

Behavior-response patterns that characterize the individual.

The determination and evaluation of personality attributes by interviews, observations, tests, or scales. Articles concerning personality measurement are considered to be within scope of this term.

A personality disorder in which there are oddities of thought (magical thinking, paranoid ideation, suspiciousness), perception (illusions, depersonalization), speech (digressive, vague, overelaborate), and behavior (inappropriate affect in social interactions, frequently social isolation) that are not severe enough to characterize schizophrenia.

Behavior in which persons hurt or harm themselves without the motive of suicide or of sexual deviation.

Check list, usually to be filled out by a person about himself, consisting of many statements about personal characteristics which the subject checks.

A personality disorder whose essential feature 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. The individual must be at least age 18 and must have a history of some symptoms of CONDUCT DISORDER before age 15. (From DSM-IV, 1994)

Categorical classification of MENTAL DISORDERS based on criteria sets with defining features. It is produced by the American Psychiatric Association. (DSM-IV, page xxii)

A personality disorder characterized by the avoidance of accepting deserved blame and an unwarranted view of others as malevolent. The latter is expressed as suspiciousness, hypersensitivity, and mistrust.

Standardized objective tests designed to facilitate the evaluation of personality.

Standardized procedures utilizing rating scales or interview schedules carried out by health personnel for evaluating the degree of mental illness.

A personality disorder characterized by a pervasive and excessive need to be taken care of that leads to submissive and clinging behavior and fears of separation, beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts. (From DSM-IV, 1994)

An act performed without delay, reflection, voluntary direction or obvious control in response to a stimulus.

Conscious or unconscious emotional reaction of the therapist to the patient which may interfere with treatment. (APA, Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms, 8th ed.)

Disorder characterized by an emotionally constricted manner that is unduly conventional, serious, formal, and stingy, by preoccupation with trivial details, rules, order, organization, schedules, and lists, by stubborn insistence on having things one's own way without regard for the effects on others, by poor interpersonal relationships, and by indecisiveness due to fear of making mistakes.

The unsuccessful attempt to kill oneself.

A directed conversation aimed at eliciting information for psychiatric diagnosis, evaluation, treatment planning, etc. The interview may be conducted by a social worker or psychologist.

A generic term for the treatment of mental illness or emotional disturbances primarily by verbal or nonverbal communication.

A personality disorder characterized by an indirect resistance to demands for adequate social and occupational performance; anger and opposition to authority and the expectations of others that is expressed covertly by obstructionism, procrastination, stubbornness, dawdling, forgetfulness, and intentional inefficiency. (Dorland, 27th ed)

The unconscious transfer to others (including psychotherapists) of feelings and attitudes which were originally associated with important figures (parents, siblings, etc.) in one's early life.

A process by which an individual unconsciously endeavors to pattern himself after another. This process is also important in the development of the personality, particularly the superego or conscience, which is modeled largely on the behavior of adult significant others.

Sudden temporary alterations in the normally integrative functions of consciousness.

Disorders whose essential features are the failure to resist an impulse, drive, or temptation to perform an act that is harmful to the individual or to others. Individuals experience an increased sense of tension prior to the act and pleasure, gratification or release of tension at the time of committing the act.

A form of psychiatric treatment, based on Freudian principles, which seeks to eliminate or diminish the undesirable effects of unconscious conflicts by making the patient aware of their existence, origin, and inappropriate expression in current emotions and behavior.

Conceptual system developed by Freud and his followers in which unconscious motivations are considered to shape normal and abnormal personality development and behavior.

Chaotic concept of self wherein one's role in life appears to be an insoluble dilemma often expressed by isolation, withdrawal, rebellion and extremism.

Growth of habitual patterns of behavior in childhood and adolescence.

The reciprocal interaction of two or more persons.

A psychological theory based on dimensions or categories used by a given person in describing or explaining the personality and behavior of others or of himself. The basic idea is that different people will use consistently different categories. The theory was formulated in the fifties by George Kelly. Two tests devised by him are the role construct repertory test and the repertory grid test. (From Stuart Sutherland, The International Dictionary of Psychology, 1989)

Those affective states which can be experienced and have arousing and motivational properties.

Brief therapeutic approach which is ameliorative rather than curative of acute psychiatric emergencies. Used in contexts such as emergency rooms of psychiatric or general hospitals, or in the home or place of crisis occurrence, this treatment approach focuses on interpersonal and intrapsychic factors and environmental modification. (APA Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms, 7th ed)

The presence of co-existing or additional diseases with reference to an initial diagnosis or with reference to the index condition that is the subject of study. Comorbidity may affect the ability of affected individuals to function and also their survival; it may be used as a prognostic indicator for length of hospital stay, cost factors, and outcome or survival.

Behavior which may be manifested by destructive and attacking action which is verbal or physical, by covert attitudes of hostility or by obstructionism.

Mood or emotional responses dissonant with or inappropriate to the behavior and/or stimulus.

Those disorders that have a disturbance in mood as their predominant feature.

A personality disorder manifested by a profound defect in the ability to form social relationships, no desire for social involvement, and an indifference to praise or criticism.

The study of significant causes and processes in the development of mental illness.

A major affective disorder marked by severe mood swings (manic or major depressive episodes) and a tendency to remission and recurrence.

Emotional attachment to someone or something in the environment.

Adaptation of the person to the social environment. Adjustment may take place by adapting the self to the environment or by changing the environment. (From Campbell, Psychiatric Dictionary, 1996)

Psychiatric illness or diseases manifested by breakdowns in the adaptational process expressed primarily as abnormalities of thought, feeling, and behavior producing either distress or impairment of function.

The feeling-tone accompaniment of an idea or mental representation. It is the most direct psychic derivative of instinct and the psychic representative of the various bodily changes by means of which instincts manifest themselves.

Theoretical representations that simulate psychological processes and/or social processes. These include the use of mathematical equations, computers, and other electronic equipment.

Predisposition to react to one's environment in a certain way; usually refers to mood changes.

A risk factor for suicide attempts and completions, it is the most common of all suicidal behavior, but only a minority of ideators engage in overt self-harm.

Tendency to feel anger toward and to seek to inflict harm upon a person or group.

Marked depression appearing in the involution period and characterized by hallucinations, delusions, paranoia, and agitation.

A class of traumatic stress disorders with symptoms that last more than one month. There are various forms of post-traumatic stress disorder, depending on the time of onset and the duration of these stress symptoms. In the acute form, the duration of the symptoms is between 1 to 3 months. In the chronic form, symptoms last more than 3 months. With delayed onset, symptoms develop more than 6 months after the traumatic event.

A personality disorder characterized by overly reactive and intensely expressed or overly dramatic behavior, proneness to exaggeration, emotional excitability, and disturbances in interpersonal relationships.

Disorders related to substance abuse.

Assessment of psychological variables by the application of mathematical procedures.

The co-existence of a substance abuse disorder with a psychiatric disorder. The diagnostic principle is based on the fact that it has been found often that chemically dependent patients also have psychiatric problems of various degrees of severity.

Behavior exhibited by individuals who are overly suspicious, but without the constellation of symptoms characteristic of paranoid personality disorder or paranoid type of schizophrenia.

The fundamental dispositions and traits of humans. (Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 10th ed)

The act of injuring one's own body to the extent of cutting off or permanently destroying a limb or other essential part of a body.

Abuse of children in a family, institutional, or other setting. (APA, Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms, 1994)

Persons who receive ambulatory care at an outpatient department or clinic without room and board being provided.

Forms of PSYCHOTHERAPY falling within or deriving from the psychoanalytic tradition, that view individuals as reacting to unconscious forces (e.g., motivation, drive), that focus on processes of change and development, and that place a premium on self understanding and making meaning of what is unconscious.

A state in which attention is largely directed outward from the self.

The conscious portion of the personality structure which serves to mediate between the demands of the primitive instinctual drives, (the id), of internalized parental and social prohibitions or the conscience, (the superego), and of reality.

A person's view of himself.

A change in electrical resistance of the skin, occurring in emotion and in certain other conditions.

A set of forebrain structures common to all mammals that is defined functionally and anatomically. It is implicated in the higher integration of visceral, olfactory, and somatic information as well as homeostatic responses including fundamental survival behaviors (feeding, mating, emotion). For most authors, it includes the AMYGDALA; EPITHALAMUS; GYRUS CINGULI; hippocampal formation (see HIPPOCAMPUS); HYPOTHALAMUS; PARAHIPPOCAMPAL GYRUS; SEPTAL NUCLEI; anterior nuclear group of thalamus, and portions of the basal ganglia. (Parent, Carpenter's Human Neuroanatomy, 9th ed, p744; NeuroNames, http://rprcsgi.rprc.washington.edu/neuronames/index.html (September 2, 1998)).

Methods for quantitatively assessing and measuring interpersonal and group relationships.

The act of killing oneself.

Sexual maltreatment of the child or minor.

Anxiety experienced by an individual upon separation from a person or object of particular significance to the individual.

A psychoanalytic term meaning self-love.

A direct form of psychotherapy based on the interpretation of situations (cognitive structure of experiences) that determine how an individual feels and behaves. It is based on the premise that cognition, the process of acquiring knowledge and forming beliefs, is a primary determinant of mood and behavior. The therapy uses behavioral and verbal techniques to identify and correct negative thinking that is at the root of the aberrant behavior.

Studies in which variables relating to an individual or group of individuals are assessed over a period of time.

Levels within a diagnostic group which are established by various measurement criteria applied to the seriousness of a patient's disorder.

Studies in which individuals or populations are followed to assess the outcome of exposures, procedures, or effects of a characteristic, e.g., occurrence of disease.

Disorders in which the symptoms are distressing to the individual and recognized by him or her as being unacceptable. Social relationships may be greatly affected but usually remain within acceptable limits. The disturbance is relatively enduring or recurrent without treatment.

The process by which PAIN is recognized and interpreted by the brain.

An affective disorder manifested by either a dysphoric mood or loss of interest or pleasure in usual activities. The mood disturbance is prominent and relatively persistent.

Disorders affecting TWINS, one or both, at any age.

Predetermined sets of questions used to collect data - clinical data, social status, occupational group, etc. The term is often applied to a self-completed survey instrument.

Method for obtaining information through verbal responses, written or oral, from subjects.

Those occurrences, including social, psychological, and environmental, which require an adjustment or effect a change in an individual's pattern of living.

A group of disorders characterized by physiological and psychological disturbances in appetite or food intake.

Feeling or emotion of dread, apprehension, and impending disaster but not disabling as with ANXIETY DISORDERS.

A form of therapy in which two or more patients participate under the guidance of one or more psychotherapists for the purpose of treating emotional disturbances, social maladjustments, and psychotic states.

A strong emotional feeling of displeasure aroused by being interfered with, injured or threatened.

Organized services to provide immediate psychiatric care to patients with acute psychological disturbances.

Persistent and disabling ANXIETY.

Two individuals derived from two FETUSES that were fertilized at or about the same time, developed in the UTERUS simultaneously, and born to the same mother. Twins are either monozygotic (TWINS, MONOZYGOTIC) or dizygotic (TWINS, DIZYGOTIC).

Interaction between a mother and child.

The application of modern theories of learning and conditioning in the treatment of behavior disorders.

The statistical reproducibility of measurements (often in a clinical context), including the testing of instrumentation or techniques to obtain reproducible results. The concept includes reproducibility of physiological measurements, which may be used to develop rules to assess probability or prognosis, or response to a stimulus; reproducibility of occurrence of a condition; and reproducibility of experimental results.

Evaluation undertaken to assess the results or consequences of management and procedures used in combating disease in order to determine the efficacy, effectiveness, safety, and practicability of these interventions in individual cases or series.

A loosely defined grouping of drugs that have effects on psychological function. Here the psychotropic agents include the antidepressive agents, hallucinogens, and tranquilizing agents (including the antipsychotics and anti-anxiety agents).

In current usage, approximately equivalent to personality. The sum of the relatively fixed personality traits and habitual modes of response of an individual.

Almond-shaped group of basal nuclei anterior to the INFERIOR HORN OF THE LATERAL VENTRICLE of the TEMPORAL LOBE. The amygdala is part of the limbic system.

A statistical technique that isolates and assesses the contributions of categorical independent variables to variation in the mean of a continuous dependent variable.

Studies which start with the identification of persons with a disease of interest and a control (comparison, referent) group without the disease. The relationship of an attribute to the disease is examined by comparing diseased and non-diseased persons with regard to the frequency or levels of the attribute in each group.

Diagnostic, therapeutic and preventive mental health services provided for individuals in the community.

Persons who have committed a crime or have been convicted of a crime.

Recording of visual and sometimes sound signals on magnetic tape.

The total number of cases of a given disease in a specified population at a designated time. It is differentiated from INCIDENCE, which refers to the number of new cases in the population at a given time.

One of the convolutions on the medial surface of the CEREBRAL HEMISPHERES. It surrounds the rostral part of the brain and CORPUS CALLOSUM and forms part of the LIMBIC SYSTEM.

A primary, chronic disease with genetic, psychosocial, and environmental factors influencing its development and manifestations. The disease is often progressive and fatal. It is characterized by impaired control over drinking, preoccupation with the drug alcohol, use of alcohol despite adverse consequences, and distortions in thinking, most notably denial. Each of these symptoms may be continuous or periodic. (Morse & Flavin for the Joint Commission of the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence and the American Society of Addiction Medicine to Study the Definition and Criteria for the Diagnosis of Alcoholism: in JAMA 1992;268:1012-4)

Psychiatry in its legal aspects. This includes criminology, penology, commitment of mentally ill, the psychiatrist's role in compensation cases, the problems of releasing information to the court, and of expert testimony.

Cortical vigilance or readiness of tone, presumed to be in response to sensory stimulation via the reticular activating system.

Non-invasive method of demonstrating internal anatomy based on the principle that atomic nuclei in a strong magnetic field absorb pulses of radiofrequency energy and emit them as radiowaves which can be reconstructed into computerized images. The concept includes proton spin tomographic techniques.

Conceptual functions or thinking in all its forms.

Interactions between health personnel and patients.