| gene disorder | Hereditary disorder caused by a mutant allele of a single gene (e.g., Duchenne muscular dystrophy, retinoblastoma, sickle cell disease). Compare polygenic disorders. (05 Mar 2000) |
|---|---|
| manic-depressive disorder | An obsolete term for one of the mood disorders; i.e., bipolar disorder, depression; affective psychosis, affective disorder, bipolar disorder, and endogenous depression. (05 Mar 2000) |
| generalised anxiety disorder | Chronic, repeated episodes of anxiety reactions; a psychological disorder in which anxiety or morbid fear and dread accompanied by autonomic changes are prominent features. See: anxiety. (05 Mar 2000) |
| reactive attachment disorder | Markedly disturbed and developmentally inappropriate social relatedness that begins before age 5 and is associated with grossly pathological child care. The child may persistently fail to initiate and respond to social interactions in a developmentally appropriate way (inhibited type) or there may be a pattern of diffuse attachments with nondiscriminate sociability (disinhibited type). (12 Dec 1998) |
| passive-aggressive personality disorder | A personality disorder characterised by an indirect resistance to demands for adequate social and occupational performance; anger and opposition to authority and the expectations of others that is expressed covertly by obstructionism, procrastination, stubbornness, dawdling, forgetfulness, and intentional inefficiency. (12 Dec 1998) |
| visceral disorder | Nomenclature used in reference to psychosomatic disorder. (05 Mar 2000) |
| REM behaviour disorder | A disorder characterised by lack of the atonia of voluntary muscles that normally occurs in REM sleep. (05 Mar 2000) |
| memory disorder | Disturbances in registering an impression, in the retention of an acquired impression or in the recall of an impression. (12 Dec 1998) |
| character disorder | A term referring to a group of behavioural disorder's, now replaced by a more general term, personality disorder, of which character disorder's are now a subclass. (05 Mar 2000) |
| mental disorder | A psychological syndrome or behavioural pattern that is associated with either subjective distress or objective impairment. See: mental illness, behaviour disorder. (05 Mar 2000) |
| personality disorder | General term for a group of behavioural disorder's characterised by usually lifelong, ingrained, maladaptive patterns of deviant behaviour, lifestyle, and social adjustment that are different in quality from psychotic and neurotic symptoms; former designations for individuals with these personality disorder's were psychopath and sociopath. See: antisocial personality disorder. (05 Mar 2000) |
| pervasive developmental disorder | A class of mental disorders of infancy, childhood, or adolescence characterised by distortions in the development of the multiple basic psychological functions involved in the development of social skills and language. (05 Mar 2000) |
| pervasive development disorder | <neurology, psychiatry> A large group of developmental disabilities which are neurological disorders, usually of unknown cause. Characteristics include reduced abilities to understand language and communicate normally, reduced ability to socially interact with others in a normal manner, and limited variety in activities and interests. Individuals will also often respond in unusual ways to sensations, engage in repetitive activities, and resist changes to the environment or to daily routines. Types of pervasive development disorder include autism, Retts Syndrome, Hellers Syndrome, and Aspergers Syndrome. Acronym: PDD (12 Jan 1998) |
| chromosome disorder | An abnormal condition due to an abnormality of the chromosomes. For example, Down syndrome (the genetic abnormality featuring three chromosome 21s, instead of two, also refered to as trisomy 21) is a chromosome disorder. (12 Dec 1998) |
| rumination disorder | A mental disorder occurring in infancy characterised by repeated regurgitation of food; usually accompanied by weight loss or failure to gain weight. (05 Mar 2000) |