| mental hygiene | The science and practice of maintaining and restoring mental health; a branch of early twentieth century psychiatry that has become an interdisciplinary field including subspecialties in psychology, nursing, social work, law, and other professions. (05 Mar 2000) |
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| mental illness | A broadly inclusive term, generally denoting one or all of the following: 1) a disease of the brain, with predominant behavioural symptoms, as in paresis or acute alcoholism; 2) a disease of the "mind" or personality, evidenced by abnormal behaviour, as in hysteria or schizophrenia; also called mental or emotional disease, disturbance, or disorder, or behaviour disorder, any psychiatric illness listed in Current Medical Information and Terminology of the American Medical Association or in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders of the American Psychiatric Association. See: behaviour disorder. (05 Mar 2000) |
| mental image | A picture of an object not present, produced in the mind by memory or imagination. (05 Mar 2000) |
| mental impairment | A disorder characterised by the display of an intellectual defect, as manifested by diminished cognitive, interpersonal, social, and vocational effectiveness and quantitatively evaluated by psychological examination and assessment. (05 Mar 2000) |
| mental impression | 1. The act of impressing, or the state of being impressed; the communication of a stamp, mold, style, or character, by external force or by influence. 2. <dentistry> The first step in making a model of your teeth. You bite into a container filled with algenate, and the algenate hardens to produce a mold of your teeth. 3. That which is impressed; stamp; mark; indentation; sensible result of an influence exerted from without. "The stamp and clear impression of good sense." (Cowper) "To shelter us from impressions of weather, we must spin, we must weave, we must build." (Barrow) 4. The pressure of the type on the paper, or the result of such pressure, as regards its appearance; as, a heavy impression; a clear, or a poor, impression; also, a single copy as the result of printing, or the whole edition printed at a given time. "Ten impressions which his books have had." (Dryden) Origin: F. Impression, L. Impressio. (27 Oct 1998) |
| mental nerve | <anatomy, nerve> A branch of the inferior alveolar nerve, arising in the mandibular canal and passing through the mental foramen to the chin and lower lip. Synonym: nervus mentalis. (05 Mar 2000) |
| mental point | In craniometry, the most anterior point on the mandible in the midline; the most anterior, prominent point on the chin. Synonym: mental point. Origin: G. Dim. Of pogon, beard (05 Mar 2000) |
| mental process | The prominence of the chin at the anterior part of the mandible. Synonym: protuberantia mentalis, mental process. (05 Mar 2000) |
| mental processes | Conceptual functions or thinking in all its forms. (12 Dec 1998) |
| mental protuberance | The prominence of the chin at the anterior part of the mandible. Synonym: protuberantia mentalis, mental process. (05 Mar 2000) |
| mental region | The region of the chin. Synonym: regio mentalis. (05 Mar 2000) |
| mental retardation | Subnormal intellectual functioning which originates during the developmental period and is associated with impairment of one or more of the following: (1) maturation, (2) learning, (3) social adjustment. (12 Dec 1998) |
| mental scotoma | Absence of insight into, or inability to comprehend, items relative to a subject whose content is highly emotional to the individual. Synonym: blind spot. (05 Mar 2000) |
| mental spine | A slight projection, sometimes two, in the middle line of the posterior surface of the body of the mandible, giving attachment to the geniohyoid muscle (below) and the genioglossus (above). Synonym: spina mentalis, genial tubercle. (05 Mar 2000) |
| mental state | <clinical sign, psychiatry> A finding on physical examination that may refer to any number of abnormal changes in baseline mental functioning. Milder examples include mood changes, irritability, personality changes, depression or blunted affect. Advanced changes include confusion, lethargy, sleepiness, hallucinations, unresponsiveness and coma. (27 Sep 1997) |