
acute stress disorder
A transient anxiety disorder following exposure to a traumatic event, with a similar pattern of symptoms to post-traumatic stress disorder plus symptoms of dissociation (such as dissociative amnesia, ...

affective disorder
A large class of disorders of mood or emotional conditions, including bipolar disorder, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and abnormal mood states sometimes associated with substance abuse ...

anxiety
n. generalized pervasive fear. Anxiety disorders are conditions in which anxiety dominates the patient’s life or is experienced in particular situations; they include panic disorder, post-traumatic ...

anxiety neurosis
Another name for generalized anxiety disorder. The term was introduced by Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) in the title of an article in 1894 ‘On the Grounds for Detaching a Particular Syndrome from ...

battered woman
(BWS) was an early attempt to describe the psychological impacts of partner abuse: domestic violence on a battered partner (see battery). BWS is now controversial, as it attempts to explain ...

combat fatigue
An obsolescent and misleading term (because fatigue is not necessarily a symptom) for post-traumatic stress disorder, especially when caused by traumatic experiences during military actions. Also ...

disaster counselling
A form of counselling offered to the victims of major disasters, including accidents such as aircraft crashes, criminal acts such as terrorist bombs, and natural catastrophes such as earthquakes. The ...

disasters
A hazard event (natural or induced) that seriously disrupts the normal functions of society and causes widespread human, material, or environmental losses which exceed the ability of the affected ...

dissociative identity disorder
A dissociative disorder characterized by the presence of two or more (sometimes many) separate personalities, each with its own memories and patterns of behaviour, at least two of which take turns in ...

eye-movement desensitization and reprocessing
A form of psychotherapy designed originally for treating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and sometimes applied to other anxiety disorders. When it is applied to PTSD, the client or patient is ...

flashback
n. 1. vivid involuntary reliving of the perceptual abnormalities experienced during a previous episode of drug intoxication, including hallucinations and derealization, most commonly experienced with ...

flashback
1 In a novel, film, or other fictional work, a sudden transition to an earlier episode in the narrative.2 A recurrence of a memory, or the experience of reliving an episode from the past. See also ...

flooding
A technique of behaviour therapy used to treat post-traumatic stress disorder, phobias, and other anxiety disorders by exposing the anxious person intensively to the anxiety-producing situation until ...

Gulf War syndrome
A variety of symptoms, mainly neurological (including chronic fatigue, dizziness, amnesia, digestive upsets, and muscle wasting), that have been attributed to exposure of armed forces personnel to ...

mental harm
A state of severe physical or mental disturbance or incapacity that has come about as a result of an event, and constituting any of a wide range of recognisable psychiatric ...

pain and suffering
The psychological consequences of personal injuries, in terms of pain, shock, consciousness that one's life expectancy has been shortened, embarrassment caused by disfigurement, etc. Damages are ...

panic attack
A period during which there is a sudden onset of intense terror, fear, or apprehension, accompanied by signs and symptoms such as a feeling of impending doom, thanatophobia, fear of going insane, ...

prolonged duress stress disorder
An anxiety disorder resulting from prolonged exposure to stress, such as severe work-related stress or continual bullying, with symptoms similar to those of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) but ...

shell-shock
A term introduced by the English psychologist Charles Samuel Myers (1873–1946), in an article in the medical journal The Lancet in 1915, to denote what came to be called post-traumatic stress ...

stress
n. any factor that threatens the health of the body or has an adverse effect on its functioning, such as injury, disease, overwork, or worry. The existence of one form of stress tends to diminish ...