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Glossary of Common Psychiatric Terms

Document Cited in Related
Vincent
AuthorMichael Butler
Pages305-307

Appendix 3


Glossary of Common Psychiatric Terms

A selection of commonly used psychiatric terms, together with an attempt at a brief summary of their meanings, is set out below. The list is not in any sense definitive, it is based on a variety of clinical sources and is simply designed to give practitioners a basic understanding of terms that they will regularly encounter.

Affect The external manifestation of a person’s emotional state (contrast with mood – see below).

Circumstantial thinking A digressive pattern of thinking, characterised in speech by a delay getting to the point and distraction by unnecessary information or detail. Different from tangential thinking (see below) in that the person will eventually get to the point.

Co-morbidity The presence of a disorder or illness which exists alongside another disorder or illness.

Confabulation The...

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