Mental Health

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Learning Objectives

  • Define mental health and mental illness
  • Analyze, translate, and define medical terms and common abbreviations used with mental health
  • Practice the spelling and pronunciation of mental health terminology
  • Identify the medical specialties associated with the mental health and explore common diseases, disorders, pharmacology, diagnostic tests and procedures

Key Word Components

Identify meanings of key word components of mental health:

Prefixes

  • acro- (heights, extremes, extremities)
  • an- (no, not, without)
  • bi- (two)
  • dis- (apart)
  • dys- (bad, difficult, painful, abnormal)
  • eu- (good)
  • ex- (outward)
  • para- (near, beside, abnormal)

Combining Forms

  • affect– (emotional reaction)
  • agor/a- (marketplace)
  • ambul/o- (to move)
  • amnes/o- (forgetful)
  • anxi/o– (fear, worry)
  • aut/o– (self)
  • centr/o- (centre)
  • compuls/o– (drive, compel)
  • cycl/o– (cycle)
  • delus/o– (false belief, to cheat)
  • ech/o- (sound)
  • fab/o- (story)
  • hallucinat/o– (to wander in mind)
  • hedon/o- (pleasure)
  • Iatr/o- (treatment)
  • klept/o – (to steal, stealing)
  • ment/o- (mind , do not confuse with chin)
  • narc/o– (sleep, stupor)
  • neur/o- (nerve)
  • obsess/o– (besieged by thought)
  • path/o- (disease)
  • phil/o– (attraction)
  • phor/o- (carry, bear, state)
  • psych/o, thym/o, phren/o – (mind)
  • pyr/o- (fire)
  • schiz/o– (divide, split)
  • soci/o- (society)
  • somat/o– (body)
  • somn/o- (sleep)

Suffixes

  • -ia, -ism (condition)
  • -iatrist (one who specializes in the treatment)
  • -lepsy (seizure)
  • -mania (condition of madness; frenzy; excessive excitement)
  • -phobia (condition of fear)
  • -thymia (condition of the mind)
  • -orexia (appetite)

Pronouncing and Defining Commonly Abbreviated Mental Health Terms

Practice pronouncing and defining these commonly abbreviated mental health terms:

  • ADL (Activities of Daily living)
  • BD or BP (Bipolar disorder)
  • BDD (Body dysmorphic disorder)
  • CBT (Cognitive-behavioural therapy)
  • DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Health Disorders)
  • DTs (Delirium tremens)
  • ECT (Electroconvulsive therapy)
  • GAD (generalized anxiety disorder)
  • ICD (International Classification of Diseases)
  • ID (intellectual disability)
  • OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder)
  • ODD (oppositional defiant disorder)
  • PD (panic disorder *also personality disorder)
  • PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder)
  • SAD (seasonal affective disorder)

Sorting Terms

Sort the terms from the word lists above into the following categories:

  • Disease and Disorder (terms describing any deviation from normal structure and function)
  • Diagnostic (terms related to process of identifying a disease, condition, or injury from its signs and symptoms)
  • Therapeutic (terms related to treatment or curing of diseases)
  • Anatomic (terms related to body structure)

Test Your Knowledge

Test your knowledge by answering the questions below:

Mental Health Reinforcement Activity  (Text version)
  1. Psychology ______[Blank 1].
    1. is a medical specialty focused on childhood diseases.
    2. is the study of infectious diseases.
    3. is the study of human behaviour and thought processes of the mind.
    4. include sebaceous glands and sweat glands
  2. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) ________[Blank 2].
    1. is the resource used by healthcare professionals in much of the world to diagnose mental disorders.
    2. is a manual related to nutrition and healthy eating.
    3. a manual that provides statistical analysis of epidemiology.
    4. is a guideline for the treatment of childhood cancer.
  3. Anxiety is__________[Blank 3].
    1. the state of feeling uneasiness, apprehension, worry or dread.
    2. a treatment for common forms of skin cancer.
    3. the feeling that one is going to vomit.
    4. an infectious disease.
  4. Withdrawal is ________[Blank 4].
    1. a diagnostic test for colon cancer.
    2. an unusual presentation of a skin infection.
    3. a state where a person is attempting to come down from having a drug or alcohol over a long time.
    4. a symptom related to an endocrine disorder.

Check your answers: [1]

Activity source: Mental Health Reinforcement Activity by Open Learning at Conestoga College, licensed under CC BY 4.0.

Downloadable Worksheets

Attribution

Except where otherwise noted, this page created by Connie Stevens and Marie Rutherford is licensed under CC BY 4.0.

 


  1. 1. c) is the study of human behaviour and thought processes of the mind, 2. a)is the resource used by healthcare professionals in much of the world to diagnose mental disorders, 3. a) the state of feeling uneasiness, apprehension, worry or dread, 4. c) a state where a person is attempting to come down from having a drug or alcohol over a long time.

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Building a Medical Terminology 2e - Student Companion Workbook Copyright © 2024 by Kimberlee Carter; Marie Rutherford; and Connie Stevens is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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