864 articles
Jenkem
Jenkem, also called butthash, is an alleged inhalant made by fermenting feces and urine and huffing the gas; reported among Zambian street children, but the 2007 US school-drug panic was a Totse.com forum hoax.
Jerome Oziel
Jerome Oziel, Beverly Hills clinical psychologist who treated Erik and Lyle Menendez, recorded their 1989 murder confessions, testified as key prosecution witness in 1993, and surrendered his California psychology license in 1997.
Journal of psychiatric research
Journal of Psychiatric Research (J Psychiatr Res), a peer-reviewed psychiatry journal founded 1961 by Pergamon Press, now Elsevier; ISSN 0022-3956/1879-1379, MEDLINE-indexed since 1965, sixteen issues yearly, Q1 Psychiatry and Mental Health.
June and Jennifer Gibbons
June and Jennifer Gibbons, the 'Silent Twins', Barbadian-Welsh identical twins born 1963 in Yemen, elective mutes and secret novelists committed to Broadmoor in 1982; Jennifer died of myocarditis in 1993.
K-hole
K-hole (k-hole): slang for the intense dissociative state from high-dose ketamine, involving detachment from body and time, hallucinations, and temporary paralysis; achieved above roughly 150 mg or by injection, with risks of cystitis and dependence.
Karpman drama triangle
Karpman drama triangle: Stephen Karpman's 1968 transactional analysis model of three interlocking conflict roles, Victim, Persecutor, Rescuer, with role switching and alternatives such as Choy's Winner's Triangle and Emerald's Empowerment Dynamic.
Kathleen Coen Buckwalter
Kathleen Coen ("Kitty") Buckwalter is an American gerontological nursing scientist and University of Iowa professor emerita, elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 1999.
Katsaridaphobia
Katsaridaphobia, also called cockroach phobia, is the fear of cockroaches, from Greek katsarída. It is an animal-type specific phobia treated mainly with exposure therapy, including single-session and augmented reality formats.
KDM5C-related syndromic X-linked intellectual disability
KDM5C-related syndromic X-linked intellectual disability, also called Claes-Jensen syndrome (OMIM 300534), is a rare X-linked recessive neurodevelopmental disorder caused by KDM5C histone demethylase variants, causing intellectual disability, speech delay, seizures, and short stature, mainly in males.
Kenneth and Mamie Clark
Kenneth B. Clark (1914–2005) and Mamie Phipps Clark (1917–1983) were American psychologists whose doll tests supplied key evidence for Brown v. Board of Education in 1954.
Kerry Daynes
Kerry Daynes, British consultant forensic psychologist, author of The Dark Side of the Mind and What Lies Buried, TV's 'The Profiler' on Faking It, and anti-stalking campaigner who survived a six-year stalking campaign.
Kevin Hines
Kevin Hines, American suicide prevention advocate who survived jumping from the Golden Gate Bridge on September 25, 2000, at 19 with bipolar disorder; author of Cracked Not Broken, director of Suicide: The Ripple Effect, and campaigner behind the bridge's 2024 safety net.
Kim Peek
Kim Peek (Laurence Kim Peek, 1951–2009), American savant and Rain Man inspiration; memorized over 6,000 books, read two pages at once, had no corpus callosum, and is now thought to have had FG syndrome rather than autism.
Kleptomania
Kleptomania, an impulse control disorder in DSM-5 and ICD-11, is the recurrent failure to resist stealing unneeded items, with tension before and relief after; prevalence 0.3–2.6%.
Kush (drug)
Kush: cheap, addictive synthetic drug in West Africa, first seen in Sierra Leone (2016 or ~2022), containing nitazene opioids or synthetic cannabinoids like MDMB-4en-PINACA; declared a public health emergency by Sierra Leone in April 2024.
L'Encéphale
L'Encéphale is a French-language bimonthly psychiatry journal founded in Paris in 1906 by Antheaume and Klippel, published by Elsevier Masson, ISSN 0013-7006, indexed in MEDLINE since 1964.
Laci Green
Laci Green, born Valacia Nusheen Cyrus, is an American sex educator and sex therapist, creator of the popular YouTube sex education series Sex Plus!, which ran from 2009 to 2019.
Lanterman–Petris–Short Act
Lanterman–Petris–Short Act (LPS Act), California's 1967 involuntary psychiatric treatment law (W&I Code 5000 et seq.): 5150 72-hour holds, 5250/5270 certifications, 5350 conservatorships, due process safeguards, and SB 43 (2023) reforms.
Latah
Latah (melatah), a Southeast Asian culture-specific startle syndrome of Malaysia and Indonesia, marked by exaggerated startle with echolalia, echopraxia, coprolalia, and forced obedience, mainly in Malay women; debated as disorder versus social role.
Laura Delano
Laura Delano, American writer and consultant, ex-psychiatric patient of 14 years, founder of Inner Compass Initiative (2018) and author of the 2025 memoir Unshrunk; not a physician, distinct from any namesake.
Laziness
Laziness, also called sloth or idleness, is the disinclination to work or expend effort. Not a psychiatric diagnosis; modern research explains it via motivation quality, effort-based decision making, depression, and apathy.
Leaden paralysis
Leaden paralysis is the sensation of arms or legs feeling heavy as lead during depressive episodes; a DSM-IV atypical features specifier criterion and ICD-11 term, not true muscular paralysis, linked to bipolar and chronic atypical depression.
Lean (drug)
Lean, also called purple drank, sizzurp, or dirty Sprite, is a Houston-originated recreational drink of codeine-promethazine cough syrup mixed with soda and candy, popularized by Southern hip hop and linked to respiratory depression, addiction, and overdose deaths.
Leslie Lemke
Leslie Lemke (born 1952, Milwaukee) is an American musical savant, blind with cerebral palsy and cognitive disability, who played Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 flawlessly at 14 after one hearing, without ever taking a piano lesson; raised by May Lemke, famous from 60 Minutes and Rain Man.
Lewy body dementias
Lewy body dementias: dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) and Parkinson disease dementia (PDD), alpha-synuclein deposit disorders causing hallucinations, parkinsonism, and fluctuating cognition; about 20% of dementias, no cure.
Licensed professional counselor
Licensed professional counselor (LPC), also LMHC or LCPC: a state-licensed master's-level mental health clinician who assesses, diagnoses, and treats behavioral disorders; credentialed via CACREP-accredited education, supervised fieldwork, and the NCE or NCMHCE exam, with cross-state practice through the Counseling Compact.
Lindsay Gibson
Lindsay C. Gibson, PsyD, American clinical psychologist in Virginia Beach and New York Times bestselling author of Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents (2015), which sold over a million copies; distinct from the romance novelist Lindsay Gibson.
List of mental disorders
List of mental disorders: diagnostic categories in ICD-11 and DSM-5-TR, covering anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, PTSD, schizophrenia, eating, disruptive behavior, and neurodevelopmental disorders, with 2023 global prevalence figures.
List of people with bipolar disorder
List of people with bipolar disorder: public figures including Mariah Carey, Selena Gomez, Lil Nas X, Maurice Benard, Demi Lovato, and Kanye West who disclosed diagnoses, plus retrospective historical cases such as King George III and Nietzsche.
List of phobias
List of phobias: reference overview of phobia types, named phobias (acrophobia, claustrophobia, agoraphobia, glossophobia), DSM-5-TR and ICD-11 categories, prevalence, causes, and exposure therapy treatment.