864 articles
Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale
The Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) is a clinician-rated scale measuring the severity of psychiatric symptoms, introduced by Overall and Gorham in 1962 and used mainly in research.
Broader autism phenotype
Broader autism phenotype (BAP), or broad autism phenotype: subclinical autistic traits in undiagnosed relatives of autistic people, reflecting shared genetic liability; measured with AQ, BAPQ, SRS-A; not an official diagnosis.
BTBR
BTBR (BTBR T+ Itpr3tf/J, formerly BTBR T+tf/J) is an inbred mouse strain from the Black and Tan Brachyury line, the leading idiopathic autism model: low sociability, unusual vocalizations, high grooming, and complete corpus callosum agenesis.
Bulimia nervosa
Bulimia nervosa, an eating disorder of binge eating followed by purging, fasting, or excessive exercise; first named by Gerald Russell in 1979; affects about 0.3% of US adults yearly, mostly women; treated with CBT and fluoxetine.
Buprenorphine/naloxone
Buprenorphine/naloxone (Suboxone) is a sublingual combination medication for opioid use disorder, FDA-approved October 8, 2002; naloxone deters injection misuse, and methadone retains more patients but causes more serious adverse events.
Caffeine-induced anxiety disorder
Caffeine-induced anxiety disorder (ICD-11 6C48.40) is anxiety arising during or soon after caffeine intoxication or withdrawal, not explained by a primary anxiety disorder; risk rises sharply above 400 mg.
CAGE questionnaire
CAGE questionnaire: four-item alcoholism screening test (Cut down, Annoyed, Guilty, Eye-opener) by Ewing, JAMA 1984; score 2+ positive; now superseded by AUDIT and SASQ in US guidelines.
Cannabis (drug)
Cannabis (marijuana, weed, pot) is a psychoactive drug from Cannabis sativa, with THC as the main intoxicating cannabinoid and CBD non-impairing; widely used globally, FDA-approved only as Epidiolex, dronabinol, and nabilone, and moving from US Schedule I toward Schedule III after the December 2025 executive order.
Cannabis use disorder
Cannabis use disorder (CUD, marijuana use disorder) is a DSM-5 diagnosis requiring 2 of 11 criteria; about 3 in 10 users develop it. US past-year prevalence reached 6.7% (19.3 million) in 2025; treated with psychosocial therapies, no approved medication.
Cannabis withdrawal
Cannabis withdrawal: symptom cluster after stopping heavy, prolonged THC use; DSM-5 and ICD-11 (6C41.4) recognized; onset 24-48 hours, peak days 2-6; about 47% of regular users affected; CB1 downregulation; no approved medications.
Cannabis-induced psychotic disorder
Cannabis-induced psychotic disorder (ICD-11 6C41.6; DSM-5 substance-induced psychotic disorder) is psychosis arising during or soon after cannabis intoxication or withdrawal, with 34–47% later converting to schizophrenia or bipolar disorder.
Capgras delusion
Capgras delusion (illusion des sosies), described by Joseph Capgras in 1923, is the delusional belief that a familiar person has been replaced by an identical impostor, occurring in schizophrenia, dementia, and brain injury, often refractory to antipsychotics.
Catatonia
Catatonia: neuropsychiatric syndrome of abnormal motor behavior, volition, and behavior, first named by Kahlbaum in 1874. Diagnosed by DSM-5-TR (3 of 12 features) or ICD-11; treated with lorazepam and ECT.
Catatonia associated with another mental disorder
Catatonia associated with another mental disorder (ICD-11 6A40) is a catatonia diagnosis occurring with mood disorders, schizophrenia, or autism; diagnosis needs three psychomotor features, treatment is benzodiazepines or ECT.
Catatonic depression
Catatonic depression: major depressive disorder with catatonic features (DSM-5-TR specifier; ICD-11 catatonia associated with another mental disorder). Mutism, stupor, posturing; treated with lorazepam and ECT.
Cathexis
Cathexis (Freud's Besetzung) is the psychoanalytic investment of psychic or libidinal energy in a person, object, or idea; coined by Strachey, with variants hypercathexis, decathexis, and object cathexis.
Causes of schizophrenia
Causes of schizophrenia: a multifactorial disorder arising from polygenic risk (no single gene; identical-twin concordance 1 in 2), prenatal and birth complications, cannabis and drug use, stress triggers, and neurodevelopmental and dopamine-glutamate brain mechanisms.
Celebrity worship syndrome
Celebrity worship syndrome, also called celebrity worship, is an excessive one-sided preoccupation with a celebrity measured by the Celebrity Attitude Scale, with entertainment-social, intense-personal, and borderline-pathological levels, linked to poorer mental health.
Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale
The Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) is a free, public-domain 20-item questionnaire measuring depressive symptoms during the past week, published by Lenore Radloff in 1977.
Chasing the dragon
Chasing the dragon (追龍) is Hong Kong Cantonese slang for inhaling heroin vapor heated on foil through a tube. Originated 1950s Hong Kong; causes rare toxic leukoencephalopathy; lower overdose risk than injection.
CHD3-related developmental delay-speech delay-intellectual disability-abnormalities of vision-facial dysmorphism syndrome
CHD3-related developmental delay-speech delay-intellectual disability-abnormalities of vision-facial dysmorphism syndrome, better known as Snijders Blok-Campeau syndrome (SNIBCPS), is a rare genetic disorder caused by variants in the CHD3 gene.
CHD4-related neurodevelopmental disorder
CHD4-related neurodevelopmental disorder, also called Sifrim-Hitz-Weiss syndrome (SIHIWES, OMIM 617159), is a rare autosomal dominant disorder from de novo CHD4 variants, causing developmental delay, mild-to-moderate intellectual disability, brain anomalies, and heart defects.
Child and adolescent mental health
Child and adolescent mental health covers emotional and behavioral well-being from early childhood through adolescence, including CAMHS services, multi-informant assessment (SDQ, CGAS), transdiagnostic dimensional research, and intervention science for conditions like depression and anxiety.
Child Guidance Clinics
Child guidance clinics are facilities delivering mental health counseling to children, first established by William Healy in the United States in 1909 within the mental hygiene movement.
Childhood disintegrative disorder
Childhood disintegrative disorder, or Heller syndrome (ICD-11 6A02.3), is a rare condition in which children lose language, social, and motor skills after at least two years of typical development, with regression around age 3; folded into autism spectrum disorder in DSM-5.
Chlorpromazine
Chlorpromazine is a phenothiazine antipsychotic, the first effective medication for schizophrenia, synthesized at Rhône-Poulenc and introduced into psychiatry in Paris in 1952; it remains available as an inexpensive generic.
Chris Costner Sizemore
Chris Costner Sizemore (1927–2016), the real "Eve" of The Three Faces of Eve, an American woman with dissociative identity disorder who reported 22 personalities, achieved integration in 1974, and wrote I'm Eve.
Christiane F.
Christiane F. (Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo), 1981 West German film by Uli Edel based on the 1978 memoir of teenage heroin addict Christiane Felscherinow, starring Natja Brunckhorst with a David Bowie soundtrack.
Christine Marie (psychologist)
Christine Marie, media psychologist (PhD, Fielding Graduate University), cult survivor and Voices for Dignity founder; 2021 APA Division 46 dissertation award winner; FBI informant against FLDS prophet Samuel Bateman, featured in Netflix's Trust Me: The False Prophet.
Christopher Lawford
Christopher Kennedy Lawford (1955–2018), son of Peter Lawford and Patricia Kennedy, JFK's nephew; actor and author of the bestselling addiction memoir Symptoms of Withdrawal and UN recovery advocate.