ME102 Geriatrics and Psychiatry

By Ivy Vo

Roots

• A- : without

• Age- : period of life

• An- : without

• -ation : action, process or result

• Cataton- : stretched out

• Confabul- : together or with

• -congru- : agreeing with

• Delus- : deception or illusion

• Dement- : madness or insanity

• Demo- : people or population

• Dys- : bad or abnormal

• Echo- : repetition

• -ent : possessing

• -escence : process of becoming something

• Eu- : good or normal

• -evity : state, condition, or quality

• Ger- : old age

• Geron- : old age

• -gnos : knowledge

• Grandi- : large

• -graphy : study of something

• Hallucin- : to be decieved

• -hedon- : pleasure

• -ia : condition or state

• -iatrics : field of medicine or medical care

• -ic : related to

• -ile : capable of

• In- : reversal

• -ion : action, process, or state

• -ism : belief, practice or ideology

• -ity : state, condition or quality

• Lab- : tending to change

• -lalia : speech or talk

• -lexi- : word

• -log(o)- : word or speech

• Long- : extending

• -motor : one who moves

• Neo- : new

• -noid : mind

• -noso- : disease or illness

• -ology : field of study

• -ose : characteristic or quality

• Para- : beyond

• -praxia : action or movement

• -prosody : song

• Psych(o)- : mind or soul

• -rrhea : to flow

• Sen- : old or aged

• Senil- : of old age

• -thym- : emotion

• -try : field of study

Vocabulary

Common Terms

• Terminology [Root] : Definition

• Activities of Daily Living (ADL) : basic abilities needed for independent living

• Ageism [age-ism] : discrimination against older people

• Aging : the process of growing old

• Assisted Living Facility : housing communities with personal care services for older adults

• Caregiver : a person who provides care for an older adult

• Demography [demo-graphy] : the statistical study of human populations (ex. geography and trends related to births, marriages, illnesses, and mortality)

• Elderly : someone who is 60 to 75 old

• Geriatrics [ger-iatrics] : the branch of medicine related to aging and old age

• Gerontology [geron-t-ology] - the scientific study of aging

• Longevity [long-evity] : a person’s duration of life

• Old : someone who is 76 to 90 years old

• Senescence [sen-escence] : the effects of aging on a person

• Senility [senil-ity] : physical and mental deterioration due to old age

• Very old : someone who is over 90 years old

Medical Terminology

• Alexithymia [a-lexi-thym-ia] : difficulty recognizing and articulating one’s emotions

• Alzheimer’s disease : a disorder that destroys brain cells, causing a decline in memory and cognition

• Anhedonia [an-hedon-ia] : an inability to feel pleasure

• Anosognosia [a-noso-gnos-ia] : lack of understanding of one’s own illness and its impacts

• Catatonia [cataton-ia] : disturbances in movement, behavior, and cognition

• Concrete : interpreting information in a very literal sense

• Confabulation [confabul-ation] : disturbance of memory, characterized by the creation of false memories

• Delusion [delus-ion] : fixed false belief that is held despite evidence to the contrary

• Dementia [dement-ia] : decline in memory or thinking skills

• Dysprosody [dys-prosody] : abnormal rhythm, intonation, and pitch of speech

• Echolalia [echo-lalia] : the repetition or echoing of words and sounds

• Echopraxia [echo-praxia] : the imitation or repetition of movements

• Euthymic [eu-thym-ic] : neutral state of mood stability

• Grandiose [grandi-ose] : inflated self-esteem, a belief in one’s own exceptional importance

• Hallucination [hallucin-ation] : a sensory experience that seems real but is not

• Incongruent [in-congru-ent] : one’s physical appearance does not match their reported mood

• Labile [lab-ile] : rapid and intense shifts in mood

• Logorrhea [logo-rrhea] : incoherent or compulsive talking

• Mood : a sustained emotional state

• Neologisms [neo-log-ism] : made-up words or phrases that are not part of standard language

• Paranoid/persecutory [para-noid] : an irrational fear that one is being targeted, harassed, or threatened

• Pressured speech : rapid speech that is difficult for others to interupt or follow

• Psychiatry [psych-ia-try] : branch of medicine that focuses on the diagnosis and treatment of mental health disorders

• Psychology [psych-ology] : the study of the mind and behavior

• Psychomotor agitation [psycho-motor agitation] : excessive physical activity, restlessness and fidgeting due to distress

• Psychomotor retardation [psycho-motor retardation] : slowing down of mental and physical processes

• Restricted : reduction in the intensity of emotional expression

• Blunted : an even further reduction in intensity of emotional expression compared to restricted

• Flat : complete or near complete absence of emotional expression

Idioms/Slangs

Committed - involuntary hospitalization of an individual with mental illness

• ex. John’s parents were worried about his mentalhealth, so they had him committed. 

DNR - do not resuscitate, life saving measures should not be taken in the event of cardiac arrest

• ex. The doctor respected the DNR, and did not perform CPR for the patient.

Elderly - geriatric individuals, people of an older age

• ex. The elderly woman came in for her biannual checkup.

Mental/nervous breakdown - severe and sudden onset of mental health symptoms

• ex. Jane had a mental breakdown after having too much stress at work.

Psych ward - the psychiatric unit, the area that cares for patients with metnal health conditions

• ex. After having a psychotic episode, Mark was sent to the psych ward for full-time care.

Senior moment - confusion or a lapse in memory due to old age

• ex. John’s grandpa had a senior moment and forgot about his doctor’s appointment.

Unhinged - someone who is mentally unstable and acting irrationally

• ex. After months of stress, Jane’s behavior became unhinged and her mental health declined.