UNIT 1 TERMS: Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing -O'Brien, et al

BRAIN

Amygdala Specializes in emotional memories, and appears to serve the function of detecting danger and activating fear
and the stress response.
Cerebral Cortex Responsible for higher functions of the nervous system, including voluntary muscle activity and learning,
language, and memory.
Frontal Lobe Responsible for executive functioning-planning, organizing, decision making, and working memory (short
term)
Hippocampus Processes of consolidating long-term memories.

Limbic System Regulate emotion, behavior, memory, and learning.

NEUROTRANSMITTERS

Acetylcholine (Ach) Critical role in memory and higher cortical executive functions such as learning, problem solving, and
judgement.
Dopamine (DA) D1-D5, Attention and executive functioning.

GABA Inhibitory Neurotransmitter

Glutamate Excitatory neurotransmitter.

Norepinephrine (NE) Concentration, working memory, speed of information processing.

Serotonin (5HT) Mood regulation

Behavior The actions or reactions of a person in response to external or internal stimuli.

Behavioral Therapy Model concerned with the here and now of behavior, not with how or why behavior started.

Cognition The mental process of knowing, including aspects such as awareness, perception, reasoning, and judgement.

Cognitive Therapy Emphasizes the rearrangement of a person’s maladaptive processes of thinking.

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy
extrapyramidal pathways
Family Therapy
Teaches the control of thought distortions and emphasizes the important role of thinking in how we feel and
what we do.
Various relays of motor neurons between the cerebral cortex, basal nuclei, thalamus, cerebellum and the brain
stem.
Proposes that a client’s symptoms emanate from problems within the family system.

Group Therapy Intervention in which 3 or more persons interact for the purpose of altering their behavior patterns and
developing new and more effective ways of dealing with the stressors of daily living.
Kindling Describes the lowest threshold for setting off neuronal activity in seizure disorders.

Milieu Therapy Use of the environment as a therapeutic tool.

Mood State of mind or emotion

Negative Reinforcement
Neurobiologic Model
Neuroplasticity
A Behavior model developed by BF Skinner that increases the frequency of a behavior by removing an
unpleasant stimulus when a desired response occurs.
Model that postulates the relationship of the brain and the nervous system as basic to the understanding of
the symptoms, processes, and treatment of mental illnesses and disorders.
Ability of the brain to respond to the environment. This includes the development of new synapses
(synaptogenesis), the myelination of axons, the development of dendritic and axonal branches, the destruction
or pruning of neurons, and even the birth of new neurons (neurogenisis).

Neurorceptors Specialized neurons or parts of neurons which transduce sensory information and relay it centrally. Included
are receptors for stimuli outside the body (exteroceptors) as well as receptors for stimuli from within the body
itself (interoceptors and proprioceptors). Sensory receptors may include accessory structures which condition
(e.g., filter) the input received by the receptor neurons themselves.

Positive Reinforcement Behavior Model developed by BF Skinner that rewards the desired behavior.

Pruning Destruction of Neurons

Psychoanalytic Therapy (Freud) A conceptual model developed by Freud based primarily on his work with person suffering from
disabling anxiety; the treatment approach derived from this model is psychoanalysis.
Somatic Therapies Physiologically based interventions designed to produce behavioral change.