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Mental Health Terms

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  • Early intervention

  • A process used to recognize warning signs for mental health problems and to take early action against factors that put individuals at risk. Early intervention can help children get better in less time and can prevent problems from becoming worse.

  • Eating Disorders

  • Disorders characterized by abnormal eating behaviors and a distorted body image.

  • Echopraxia

  • Repetition by imitation of the movements of another. The action is not a willed or voluntary one and has a semiautomatic and uncontrollable quality.

  • Efficacy

  • A measure of how well a medication works to relieve signs and symptoms of a condition.

  • Ego

  • In psychoanalytic theory, one of the three major divisions in the model of the psychic apparatus, the others being the id and the superego. The ego represents the sum of certain mental mechanisms, such as perception and memory, and specific defense mechanisms. It serves to mediate between the demands of primitive instinctual drives (the id), of internalized parental and social prohibitions (the superego), and of reality. The compromises between these forces achieved by the ego tend to resolve intrapsychic conflict and serve an adaptive and executive function. Psychiatric usage of the term should not be confused with common usage, which connotes self-love or selfishness.

  • Ego ideal

  • The part of the personality that comprises the aims and goals for the self; usually refers to the conscious or unconscious emulation of significant figures with whom one has identified. The ego ideal emphasizes what one should be or do in contrast to what one should not be or not do.

  • Ego-dystonic

  • Referring to aspects of a person's behavior, thoughts, and attitudes that are viewed by the self as repugnant or inconsistent with the total personality.

  • Eidetic image

  • Unusually vivid and apparently exact mental image; may be a memory, fantasy, or dream.

  • Elaboration

  • An unconscious process consisting of expansion and embellishment of detail, especially with reference to a symbol or representation in a dream.

  • Elation

  • Strong feelings of exhilaration, euphoria and optimism.

  • Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT)

  • Also known as ECT, this highly controversial technique uses low voltage electrical stimulation of the brain to treat some forms of major depression, acute mania, and some forms of schizophrenia. This potentially life-saving technique is considered only when other therapies have failed, when a person is seriously medically ill and/or unable to take medication, or when a person is very likely to commit suicide. Substantial improvements in the equipment, dosing guidelines, and anesthesia have significantly reduced the possibility of side effects.

  • Elevated mood

  • An exaggerated feeling of well-being, or euphoria or elation. A person with elevated mood may describe feeling 'high,' 'ecstatic,' 'on top of the world,' or 'up in the clouds.

  • Endorphins

  • Chemicals in the brain responsible for mood.

  • Epigenesis

  • Originally from the Greek 'epi' (on, upon, on top of) and 'genesis' (origin); the theory that the embryo is not preformed in the ovum or the sperm, but that it develops gradually by the successive formation of new parts. The concept has been extended to other areas of medicine, with different shades of meaning. Some of the other meanings are as follows: 1. Any change in an organism that is due to outside influences rather than to genetically determined ones. 2. The occurrence of secondary symptoms as a result of disease. 3. Developmental factors, and specifically the gene-environment interactions, that contribute to development. 4. The appearance of new functions that are not predictable on the basis of knowledge of the part-processes that have been combined. 5. The appearance of specific features at each stage of development, such as the different goals and risks that Erikson described for the eight stages of human life (trust vs. mistrust, autonomy vs. doubt, etc.). The life cycle theory adheres to the epigenetic principle in that each stage of development is characterized by crises or challenges that must be satisfactorily resolved if development is to proceed normally.

  • Euphoria

  • A feeling of elation that is not based on reality and is commonly exaggerated.

  • Euthymia

  • A normal, positive mood.

  • Expansive mood

  • Lack of restraint in expressing one's feelings, frequently with an overvaluation of one's significance or importance. irritable Easily annoyed and provoked to anger.

  • Extinction

  • The weakening of a reinforced operant response as a result of ceasing reinforcement. See also operant conditioning. Also, the elimination of a conditioned response by repeated presentations of a conditioned stimulus without the unconditioned stimulus. See also respondent conditioning.

  • Extraversion

  • A state in which attention and energies are largely directed outward from the self as opposed to inward toward the self, as in introversion.


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