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A disordered thought process is formally called this.
What is a "formal thought disorder"?
The term often applied to the phenomenon wherein a group of people is caught up in a "shared syndrome of excitement or anxiety, irrational behavior or beliefs, or inexplicable symptoms of illness".
E.g.: The 1998 East Java Ninja scare in Indonesia. A local population believed they were being targeted by sorcerers called "ninja", who were blamed for mysterious killings of religious leaders by assassins dressed in black. As many as 150-300 “sorcerers” were killed. Also, in 1962 was an outbreak of laughing attacks in the modern nation of Tanzania, eventually affecting 14 different schools and over 1000 people.
What is a "mass hysteria" or "mass psychogenic illness".
You are consulted for VH in an old patient who has no psychiatric history. Aside from screening for delirium and causes, you should ask about this early on, especially if what they see is repetitive and made up of things like scrolling numbers or sheet music or symbols.
What is the status of their eyesight?
Charles Bonnet Syndrome can feature fully formed VH of people or animals, landscapes, repetitive phenomena, and be brief or last for hours. You can treat it, but it frequently resolves.
The QTc cutoff you generally use for altering a medication regimen.
What is 500?
Lies or manipulation of events meant to convince someone they are mentally ill, based on the title of a stage play and movie in which a man tries to convince his wife that she is having a breakdown, hoping to have her institutionalized, thus giving him power of attorney over her and allowing him to search uninterrupted for some jewels that had been left behind during a past robbery in the home when it was her aunt's.
What is gaslighting?
Part of the plot is the dimming of the gas lights in the house he tells her only she sees.
A sudden cessation in a patient's train of thought, seen in schizophrenia, with the pt sometimes restarting speech with a different topic.
What is thought blocking?
A solitary, abnormal belief that is neither delusional nor specifically obsessional in nature, but which is preoccupying to the extent of dominating the sufferer's life. I watch out for them to see if a person is developing psychosis.
What is an overvalued idea?
Previously, a diagnoses of schizophrenia in the DSM-IV had a short cut if AH were of one of these two natures.
What is multiple and talking amongst themselves, and/or commenting on the pt.
You are called to treat agitation in a delirious patient with idiopathic Parkinson's disease and decide to choose this atypical antipsychotic.
What is quetiapine?
Katagelasticism.
What is a psychological condition in which a person excessively enjoys laughing at others?
The two types of thought disorder seen here:
“Popping bananas and zebra tries storing four selling in tryzing cars.”
What are word salad and a neologism?
A "global, diffuse, ominous feeling of something (not yet defined) impending". Schizophrenia spectrum patients often experience this and it tends to lead to the crystallization of primary delusions.
What is a delusional mood?
I have also seen "delusional atmosphere".
Vivid, colorful hallucinations of people or animals that should make one suspect a lesion in the thalamus or midbrain.
What is peduncular hallucinosis?
This benign seeming SE of clozapine can be quite distressing to patients and is often well treated with off-label use of a prescription eye drop.
What is sialorrhea/drooling?
On May 31, 2014, in Waukesha, Wisconsin, two 12-year-old girls, Anissa Weier and Morgan Geyser, lured their best friend Payton Leutner into the woods and stabbed her 19 times in an attempt to endear themselves to and become servants of this fictional character primarily known from internet stories and memes. Apparently a shared psychosis.
Who is Slender Man?
They left her to die but she got out of the woods and survived. They were found NGRI with sentences of 25 and 40 to life. Geyser was the primary and was diagnosed with schizophrenia, which her father also had.
Sometimes referred to as loosening of associations, asyndetic thinking, or knight's move thinking, it is a thought disorder characterized by a sequence of unrelated or only remotely related ideas, sometimes appearing to suddenly shift or weave topics.
What is derailment?
The 8 specifiers for a delusional disorder diagnosis. See how many you can name.
What are....?
Persecutory, grandiose, somatic, jealous, erotomanic, mixed, unspecified, or with bizarre content.
A hallucination that arises from outside the normal sensory field or range, such as people having the sensation of seeing something behind them or hearing another person who is in another city without any medium like phone or internet, etc.
What is an extracampine hallucination?
There is roughly this percentage change per year for developing TD while taking a typical antipsychotic.
What is 5%?
Forniphilia.
What is a paraphilia of sexual objectification in which a person's body is incorporated into/used as a chair, table, cabinet or other piece of furniture?
"Forniphilia is an extreme form of bondage because the subject usually is tightly bound and expected to stay immobile for a prolonged period. They are often gagged and/or placed in position where there is a danger of being smothered".
You tell a pt that she needs to keep her feet on the ground and see her take off her shoes and walk around barefoot, exhibiting this.
What is concrete thinking?
Name the 3 DSM disorders that refer to delusional jealousy/suspicion of loyalty/resentment or envy of others as diagnostic features.
What are jealous type delusional disorder, paranoid personality disorder, and narcissistic personality disorder?
Paranoid delusional jealousy, characterized by the false absolute certainty of the infidelity of a partner was referred to as "Othello syndrome".
This type of hallucinatory experience is usually vocal and typically consists of accusatory, threatening, and/or critical voices directed at the patient.
What is alcoholic hallucinosis?
A patient on sertraline is started on an antibiotic and comes to the ED w/ restlessness, flushing, tremors, myoclonus, diaphoresis, and GI upset. You suspect this antibiotic.
What is linezolid?
It inhibits serotonin catabolism.
An uncommon, poorly understood condition in which patients think that small fibers or other particles are embedded in skin sores. People with this condition often report feeling as if something were crawling on or stinging their skin. They will pick their skin and bring in samples of fibers, which are often just regular things like cotton. Though to be a form of delusional parasitosis, or an extreme reaction to skin sensations which may have heightened sensations as part of it.
What is Morgellon's syndrome?
A well known case is thought to be Munchausen's by proxy as the mom brought her 2y/o son to numerous doctors with claims of specks in his skin. Some think this is a rare skin issue requiring research.