Personality Disorders
These disorders are long‑standing patterns of inflexible, maladaptive behavior.
What are personality disorders?
The inability to recognize reality is the hallmark of this condition.
What is psychosis?
This term describes individuals who have two or more mental health disorders at the same time.
What is comorbidity?
These medications treat anxiety symptoms in personality and psychotic disorders.
What are antianxiety agents?
Nurses must always maintain this type of environment for psychotic clients.
What is a structured and safe environment?
This cluster includes paranoid, schizoid, and schizotypal personalities.
What is Cluster A (eccentric/odd)?
Hallucinations and delusions are examples of these symptoms.
What are positive symptoms?
This policy movement closed many psychiatric hospitals and sent patients back into the community.
What is deinstitutionalization?
These medications treat both depressive symptoms and some personality disorder features.
What are antidepressants?
When a client reports hallucinations, the nurse should do this—without agreeing with the hallucination.
What is acknowledge the client’s feelings?
Dramatic or erratic behaviors are characteristic of this cluster.
What is Cluster B?
Flat affect, lack of motivation, and social withdrawal fall under this symptom category.
What are negative symptoms?
Chronically mentally ill individuals often struggle with meeting these everyday basic needs.
What are food, shelter, employment, and health care?
These medications treat hallucinations, delusions, and disorganized thoughts.
What are antipsychotics?
These are important to set when working with borderline or antisocial personality disorders.
What are clear limits and consistency?
The term used when a client has both a personality disorder and a substance use disorder.
What is dual diagnosis?
These involuntary muscle movements can be caused by antipsychotic medications.
What are extrapyramidal side effects (EPS)?
This group includes those who are young, severely ill, and often refuse treatment.
Who are the young chronically mentally ill?
This blood test monitors for a dangerous side effect in clients taking clozapine.
What is a white blood cell (WBC) count?
To reduce stress for a client with chronic mental illness, nurses teach these types of techniques.
What are stress‑reduction or coping skills?
This defense mechanism involves viewing people as “all good” or “all bad.”
What is splitting?
This dangerous reaction to antipsychotic drugs includes fever, rigidity, and altered mental status.
What is neuroleptic malignant syndrome (NMS)?
This type of treatment uses a team of professionals from multiple disciplines.
What is psychiatric rehabilitation?
Nurses use this tool to screen for involuntary movement disorders caused by antipsychotics.
What is the AIMS test (Abnormal Involuntary Movement Scale)?
When a client is on antipsychotic medication, nurses must monitor for this long‑term complication that causes mouth and tongue movements.
What is tardive dyskinesia?