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 ...
alexithymia
n. a lack of ability to understand and communicate one’s own emotions and moods. It is common in depression and can cause significant relationship difficulties during the person’s illness.
anaclitic depression
A form of depression manifested by infants, usually triggered by sudden separation from a parent after having had a normal relationship for at least six months, characterized by crying, apprehension, ...
andropause
n. the decline in production of testosterone that occurs with age in men. Unlike the female menopause, there is no circumscribed time at which testosterone production irreversibly ceases. Instead it ...
antidepressant
Drugs that alleviate the symptoms of moderate to severe depression. The major classes are the tricyclic antidepressants, monoamine oxidase inhibitors, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, and ...
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 ...
attachment
n. 1. (in psychology) the process of developing the first close selective relationship of a child’s life, most commonly with the mother. The relationship acts to reduce anxiety in strange settings ...
Beck Depression Inventory
A widely used questionnaire, originally designed to be administered by a trained test administrator but widely used as a self-report scale, comprising 21 items, each describing a behavioural ...
bipolar disorder
An affective disorder in which there are dramatic shifts from one emotional extreme (euphoria, intense activity) to another (depression). The term is used in preference to manic-depressive psychosis.
Borna disease
A neurological disorder caused by Borna disease virus, a negative-strand RNA virus that will infect a range of domestic animals and humans. It causes behavioural disorders in animals and may be ...
cyclothymia
(cyclothymic disorder) n. the occurrence of mood swings from cheerfulness to misery. These fluctuations are not as great as those of bipolar affective disorder. They may represent a personality trait ...
dementia
A chronic or persistent disorder of behaviour due to organic brain disease. It is characterized by a decrease in intellectual function with changes in personality, mood, and behaviour. Presenile ...
depression scale
Any scale to measure depression, including the Depression scale of the MMPI and the Beck Depression Inventory.
depressive realism
A reduction or absence of unrealistic optimism and the overconfidence effect in a person with depression, depressed people being characteristically (across situations and domains) more accurate in ...
dexamethasone suppression test
(DSTs) tests based on the principle that appropriate doses of dexamethasone can suppress the output of cortisol from the adrenal glands in the normal state and that this ability is reduced or lost in ...
dysthymia
1 A mild but chronic depressive mood (1) state, not severe enough to lead to a diagnosis of depression or dysthymic disorder.2 A term used by the German-born British psychologist Hans J(ürgen) ...
electroconvulsive therapy
Treatment (electroshock) involving induction of seizures by the application of electrical shocks to the brain. Used for treating severe clinical depression that does not respond to drugs, although ...
endogenous
A product or an activity that arises in the body or cell, in contrast to exogenous agents or stimuli that come from outside.
endogenous depression
A form of depression that is not a reaction to an upsetting event or experience. Compare reactive depression. [From Greek endon within + genes born]
