Diagnostic Analyses
The two commonly used, self-report questionnaires designed to rapidly screen for symptoms of Major Depressive Disorder and Generalized Anxiety Disorder, respectively.
PHQ9 and GAD7
This condition requires the a disruption in identity accompanied by the presence of alters.
Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID)
This neurotransmitter system is the primary target of SSRIs and is implicated in both MDD and Panic Disorder due to its role in emotional regulation.
Serotonin
The essential process ensuring that clients understand the purpose of therapy, its potential risks and benefits, and their right to withdraw at any time.
Informed Consent
This is an essential step in the clinical process of developing a diagnosis. It includes meeting with the individual, collecting current and historical data, and recording the findings.
Diagnostic Interview
The Cluster B personality disorder involving consistent disregard for and violation of the rights of others, often starting before age 15.
Antisocial Personality Disorder
The first-line, gold-standard therapy specifically designed for Borderline Personality Disorder, which combines individual sessions with group skills training.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
The legal term for the client's right to have their personal information kept secret, which the therapist has a legal and ethical obligation to protect.
Confidentiality
The DSM approach that uses specific measures (like the severity rating) to assess the degree to which a person has a disorder. This approach looks at diagnoses at part of a continuum.
Dimensional Approach
The term for an individual's conscious or subconscious attempt to feign or grossly exaggerate physical or psychological symptoms, often for external gain (e.g., insurance or avoidance of work).
Malingering
This CBT treatment method focuses on identifying, challenging, and replacing distorted thought patterns (e.g., catastrophizing, all-or-nothing thinking).
Cognitive Restructuring
The term for when a therapist must report suspected or actual abuse or neglect of a vulnerable person, such as a child or elderly adult, to the appropriate authorities.
Mandated Reporting
The clinical strategy of systematically comparing the client's symptoms against multiple disorders to rule out all possibilities except the one that best explains the full clinical picture.
Differential Diagnosis
A specific type of delusion where the individual believes external environmental events, like a song on the radio or a traffic light, are directed at them personally.
Ideas of Reference
A last-resort biological treatment for severe, treatment-resistant depression that involves passing a brief electric current through the brain to trigger a seizure.
Electroconvulsive Shock Therapy (ECT)
A requirement for mental health professionals to inform authorities if they believe a client is at serious risk of self-harmor suicide.
Duty to Protect (Duty to Warn, Tarasoff)
This highly comprehensive, well-researched, and often lengthy personality inventory is used to assess a wide range of psychopathology, including hypochondriasis, paranoia, and social introversion. It uses over 500 true/false questions.
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)
The specific dissociative symptom defined by the experience of unreality or detachment with respect to surroundings, feeling like the world is foggy or distant.
Derealization
This biological treatment involves using a powerful magnetic field generator to stimulate specific areas of the brain, often used for treatment-resistant depression without causing a seizure.
Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS)
This term refers to the limits of a professional's competence, legally defining the procedures, actions, and processes that a clinician is permitted to undertake based on their specific license, training, and experience.
Scope of Practice