Mental and Behavioral Health Terms

The learned habits a person falls back on under pressure, some of which reduce the strain and some of which postpone it.

The word stretches from grief support to a genetics appointment, so the qualifier in front of it carries most of the meaning.

Crisis intervention aims to reduce immediate risk during an acute emotional crisis rather than provide the ongoing care an underlying problem may need.

Group patterns describe tendencies and never individuals, so assuming a belief from someone's background is its own error.

Its pain effect runs through descending spinal pathways, which is why it eases nerve pain in people who are not depressed.

Not stubbornness and not stupidity but a protective reflex, and one that often loosens on its own as the news becomes bearable.

Not simply sadness turned up: the loss of interest and the physical changes are as central as the low mood itself.

A word that sounds like a measurement and is not, because deciding what counts as normal is a judgment the term never states.

Known widely by the brand name Valium, diazepam acts long and leaves active breakdown products, so its effect outlasts the dose considerably.

A process by which a health professional with special training in nutrition helps people make healthy food choices and form healthy eating habits.

One drug licensed across mood and pain, duloxetine works partly through spinal cord pathways that damp pain signals before they reach the brain.

Speed is the usual reason it is chosen, since a response can arrive faster than medication typically achieves in severe illness.

A treatment for severe depression and certain mental disorders.

The name survives from an era the procedure no longer resembles, since it is now given under anesthesia with no visible convulsion at all.

The mirror image half of an older drug, isolated because that half carries nearly all of the activity while its twin adds little.

It stays in the body far longer than the rest of its class, which softens the effect of a missed dose and of stopping.

A communication process between a specially trained health professional and a person concerned about the genetic risk of disease.

The process by which a trained counselor or a support group helps a person work through normal feelings of sorrow after a loss, such as the death of a loved one.

An herbal product sold as an over-the-counter treatment for depression.

A specialist who can talk with patients and their families about emotional and personal matters, and can help them make decisions.