864 articles
Behavior therapy
Behavior therapy is a class of psychotherapies applying learning principles such as classical and operant conditioning to change maladaptive behaviors, with variants including systematic desensitization and flooding.
Behavioral activation
Behavioral activation is a brief, structured psychotherapy for depression in which patients schedule value-driven activities to reduce avoidance; trials find it comparable to medication and cognitive therapy.
Behavioral variant of frontotemporal dementia
Behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD), a frontotemporal dementia subtype with disinhibition, apathy, and executive decline, onset around age 58, often misdiagnosed as psychiatric illness, linked to MAPT, GRN, and C9orf72 genes.
Behaviour therapy
Behaviour therapy, also called behavioral psychotherapy, is a family of psychological treatments that applies classical and operant conditioning to reduce maladaptive behavior, emerging in the 1950s.
Bibliotherapy
Bibliotherapy is the guided reading of selected literature for mental health, emotional development, or behavior change. It interacts with the reader to aid personal adjustment and can augment therapy.
Bilateral stimulation (psychology)
Bilateral stimulation is the rhythmic alternating left–right presentation of a sensory signal, most often guided eye movements, taps, or tones, used in psychotherapy to accompany recall of distressing memories.
Bill W.
Bill W. (William Griffith Wilson, 1895–1971) co-founded Alcoholics Anonymous with Dr. Bob Smith in Akron in 1935, wrote the Big Book and Twelve Traditions, and shaped AA's anonymity and leaderless structure.
Binding problem
Binding problem: how features encoded by separate brain circuits combine into unified percepts. Also called neural binding; coined by von der Malsburg (1981); studied via illusory conjunctions, Balint's syndrome, synchrony, and AI model failures.
Binge drinking
Binge drinking, also called heavy episodic drinking, is drinking that raises blood alcohol concentration to 0.08% or more, typically 4+ drinks for women or 5+ for men in about two hours; the most common form of excessive U.S. drinking.
Binge eating
Binge eating, or binge-eating disorder (BED), is recurrent loss-of-control overeating without compensatory behavior, distinct from bulimia nervosa. About 3% of U.S. adults are affected; CBT and lisdexamfetamine are main treatments.
Binge eating disorder
Binge eating disorder (BED), a DSM-5 eating disorder marked by recurrent binge episodes with loss of control and no compensatory purging; affects 1.2% of US adults yearly; treated with CBT-based self-help and lisdexamfetamine.
Binswanger's disease
Binswanger's disease, now usually called subcortical vascular dementia or cerebral small vessel disease, is a progressive white-matter dementia from small-vessel injury, first described by Otto Binswanger in 1894, typically after age 60 with hypertension.
Biology of depression
Biology of depression: mechanisms proposed for major depressive disorder. Covers the monoamine (serotonin, norepinephrine, dopamine) hypothesis, the 2022 Moncrieff umbrella review finding no consistent serotonin-deficit evidence, the Jauhar rebuttal, and glutamate, stress, and neuroinflammation research.
Bipolar disorders
Bipolar disorders, formerly manic depression, are recurrent mood disorders with manic, hypomanic, and depressive episodes. About 36 million people worldwide; bipolar I and II types; treated with mood stabilizers, antipsychotics, and psychotherapy.
Bipolar I disorder
Bipolar I disorder (manic-depressive illness, BD-I) is a mood disorder defined by manic episodes lasting 7 days or requiring hospitalization, with depressive episodes; about 70% of mania cases have psychotic symptoms and lithium is first-line maintenance treatment.
Bipolar II disorder
Bipolar II disorder (BD-II): a bipolar disorder subtype defined by at least one hypomanic episode and one major depressive episode with no mania; depression dominates (39:1), suicide risk matches bipolar I, and it is often misdiagnosed as major depressive disorder.
Bizarre delusion
Bizarre delusion (ICD-11 MB26.00): a delusion with patently absurd, physically impossible content, contrasted with non-bizarre delusions; formerly a special schizophrenia criterion in DSM-III-R through DSM-IV-TR, demoted in DSM-5.
Black tar heroin
Black tar heroin (BTH, Chiva, Negra) is a crude, dark, sticky Mexican heroin dominating western US markets; less refined than powder heroin, requiring heated preparation, and linked to wound botulism, soft tissue infections, and lower HIV prevalence.
Blood alcohol content
Blood alcohol content (BAC), or blood alcohol concentration, measures ethanol in blood in g/dL. Key facts: US per se limit 0.08 g/dL (Utah 0.05), crash risk 4x at 0.08, ADH zero-order elimination, blood/breath ratio 2100:1.
Blood phobia
Blood phobia, or blood-injection-injury (BII) phobia, is a specific phobia of seeing blood, injections, and injury, marked by vasovagal fainting, roughly 3-4% adult prevalence, early childhood onset, and exposure plus applied tension treatment.
Blue Whale Challenge
Blue Whale Challenge, also called the Blue Whale game or suicide game, is an internet urban legend from Russian VKontakte groups (2015-2016) about a 50-task self-harm game ending in suicide; investigations found no app, platform, or verified deaths, making it a moral panic.
Bodily distress disorder
Bodily distress disorder (BDD) is the ICD-11 diagnosis of distressing bodily symptoms with excessive attention and impaired functioning, replacing ICD-10 somatoform disorders and neurasthenia, with mild, moderate, and severe specifiers.
Body doubling
Body doubling: working on a task in the presence of another person (the body double), a focus strategy popularized in ADHD communities. Coined by Linda Anderson in 1996; no clinical trials exist, only HCI survey and VR studies.
Body dysmorphic disorder
Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD, dysmorphophobia) is a psychiatric disorder involving distressing preoccupation with perceived appearance flaws, classified with OCD in DSM-5 and ICD-11 (6B21); pooled prevalence 11.3% in clinical settings, high suicidality, treated with CBT/ERP and SSRIs.
Body integrity dysphoria
Body integrity dysphoria (BID), formerly apotemnophilia, BIID, or xenomelia, is an ICD-11 (6C21) condition of persistent desire to acquire a disability such as limb amputation, with onset by early adolescence and parietal and premotor brain correlates.
Body-focused repetitive behaviour disorders
Body-focused repetitive behaviour disorders (BFRBDs, ICD-11 6B25) are an obsessive-compulsive-related diagnostic category covering trichotillomania, excoriation disorder, and related grooming behaviors, defined by recurrent integument-directed actions, failed stop attempts, and dermatological sequelae.
Borderline pattern
Borderline pattern (ICD-11 code 6D11.5) is an optional specifier for personality disorder diagnoses, requiring at least 5 of 9 DSM-5-derived borderline features; added as a compromise to preserve continuity of care and access to psychotherapy.
Borderline personality disorder
Borderline personality disorder (BPD), also called emotionally unstable personality disorder, is a mental illness of unstable relationships, self-image, emotions, and impulsivity; treated mainly with psychotherapy such as DBT.
BPTT trial
BPTT trial (NCT03967509): a Swedish cluster randomized effectiveness trial by Uppsala University testing adapted Comet behavioral preschool teacher training, 25 intervention vs 22 control preschools, 100 children aged 3-5, for externalizing behavior.
Brief Behavioral Treatment for Insomnia
Brief Behavioral Treatment for Insomnia (BBTI) is a four-session behavioral psychotherapy for chronic insomnia, using sleep restriction, stimulus control, and sleep education, designed for delivery in primary care.