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Psychiatric-Mental Health Nursing

Key Terms

Psychiatric-Mental Health NursingKey Terms
Alzheimer disease
most common neurocognitive disorders; affects the brain by causing atrophy in the cortex and deposits of amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles in the neurons, which cause degeneration of the neurons
delirium
mental state in which the client becomes temporarily confused, disoriented, and not able to think or remember clearly
dementia
older term to describe major neurodegenerative brain disorders that cause changes in a person’s cognition
frontotemporal degeneration
affects nerve cells in the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain, most common form in younger people
Huntington disease
genetic mutation that causes both physical and cognitive declines; the disease attacks the neurons in the brain, causing them to die
Lewy body dementia
involves Lewy bodies, insoluble deposits of alpha-synuclei protein that damage the brain
major neurocognitive disorder
group of disorders that can affect younger and older individuals’ cognition with a gradual decline in at least one of the following domains of cognition: executive function, complex attention, language, learning, memory, perceptual-motor, or social cognition
mild neurocognitive disorder (MiND)
diminishment in an individual’s cognition, attention, memory, learning, and/or social and motor skills that is greater than expected from the regular aging process but that does not cause the individual to be unable to function on their own
neurocognitive disorder
brain function disorders that mark gradual or sudden diminishment in cognition, attention, memory, learning, social, and/or motor skills and often affect the ability to perform activities of daily living
Parkinson disease
similar to Lewy body dementia, involving Lewy bodies, insoluble deposits of alpha-synuclei protein that damage the brain
Prion disease (Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease)
very rare dementia that progresses rapidly and leads to death within one year
vascular dementia
stem from injuries to the brain caused by ischemia, such as a stroke, that block blood flow to the brain and lead to permanent neuron death
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