Mental health

Cold turkey

Cold turkey: abrupt, complete withdrawal from an addictive substance such as tobacco, alcohol, or opioids, without tapering. American-English phrase (c. 1915–20); trial evidence favors abrupt over gradual smoking cessation with support.

Combat stress reaction

Combat stress reaction (CSR), also called battle fatigue or combat and operational stress reaction (COSR), is an acute, non-diagnosable stress response to combat that impairs duty performance; treated with proximity, immediacy, and expectancy frontline principles.

Oct 20, 2026

Community Mental Health Centers

Community Mental Health Centers (CMHCs) are US facilities created by the 1963 Community Mental Health Act to deliver local psychiatric services, driving deinstitutionalization and later the CCBHC model.

Community Mental Health Services

Community mental health services provide outpatient, team-based, crisis, peer, and supported-living care outside psychiatric institutions; defined by WHO, shaped by the 1963 US Community Mental Health Act, and supported by Cochrane and ACT trial evidence.

Community reinforcement and family training

Community reinforcement and family training (CRAFT) is a behavioral program that trains families to encourage a loved one's addiction treatment, succeeding about two-thirds of the time.

Compassion-focused therapy

Compassion-focused therapy (CFT) is a third-wave psychotherapy developed by Paul Gilbert around 2000 that trains clients in compassion skills to reduce shame and self-criticism, with trials showing reduced depression.

Complex (psychology)

Complex (psychology): Jung's feeling-toned complex, an emotionally charged group of ideas acting semi-independently, discovered via the Burghölzli word association experiments; basis of his complex psychology, distinct from Freud's Oedipus and Adler's inferiority complexes.

Complex post-traumatic stress disorder

Complex post-traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD, C-PTSD), ICD-11 6B41: prolonged repeated trauma syndrome combining PTSD core symptoms with disturbances in affect regulation, self-concept, and relationships; 1–8% population prevalence; not in DSM-5.

Composite International Diagnostic Interview

The Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI) is a fully standardized lay-administered interview generating computer-scored ICD and DSM diagnoses of mental disorders, developed by the WHO and used in large epidemiological studies.

Comprehensive psychiatry

Comprehensive Psychiatry (Compr Psychiatry), Elsevier journal founded 1960, ISSN 0010-440X; open access, peer-reviewed psychiatry and mental health journal, bimonthly, Q1, edited by Naomi Fineberg.

Compulsive behavior

Compulsive behavior: repetitive acts driven by the need to reduce anxiety, seen in OCD, addiction, and related disorders; explained by habit-goal imbalance and treated with ERP.

Compulsive buying disorder

Compulsive buying disorder, also called compulsive buying-shopping disorder (CBSD) or oniomania, is a behavioral condition of irresistible buying urges, loss of control, and harmful consequences; not in DSM-5, listed in ICD-11 under 6C7Y, prevalence about 5%.

Compulsive sexual behaviour disorder

Compulsive sexual behaviour disorder (CSBD), ICD-11 code 6C72, is an impulse control disorder marked by persistent failure to control repetitive sexual impulses causing distress or impairment; excluded from DSM-5, prevalence 1–3%.

Contingency management

Contingency management is a behavioral treatment for substance use disorders that delivers vouchers, gift cards, or prize draws when drug tests verify abstinence, ranked best for stimulant use disorder.

Controversies in autism

Controversies in autism: disputes over rising prevalence (1 in 31 U.S. children, 2025 CDC), the refuted vaccine-autism myth from Wakefield's 1998 Lancet paper, neurodiversity versus the medical model, and ABA therapy ethics.

Conversion disorder

Conversion disorder, or functional neurological symptom disorder (FND), causes neurological symptoms like weakness, tremor, and seizures without structural disease; diagnosed by positive signs such as the Hoover sign, historically called hysteria.

Conversion therapy

Conversion therapy, also called reparative therapy or SOCE/GICE, attempts to change a person's sexual orientation or gender identity. It lacks efficacy, is linked to depression and suicide risk, and is banned in Malta, Germany, France, and other states.

Coprophilia

Coprophilia: sexual arousal from viewing, smelling, or handling feces; a DSM-5 other specified paraphilic disorder, distinct from coprophagia, first categorized by Austrian psychiatrists in the 1870s.

Counterconditioning

Counterconditioning is a behavior therapy procedure that replaces an unwanted conditioned response to a stimulus with a new, incompatible response, such as relaxation or reward.

CPIC trial

CPIC trial (Community Partners in Care, NCT01699789): cluster-randomized Los Angeles trial of 95 programs and 1,246 depressed adults comparing community coalition engagement (CEP) versus technical assistance (RS) for depression care.

Crack cocaine

Crack cocaine is the smokable free base of cocaine, sold as rocks, named for the crackling sound when heated. Emerged in New York City in 1985, drove the 1980s US crack epidemic and the 100-to-1 federal sentencing disparity, later reduced by the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010.

Crack epidemic in the United States

Crack epidemic in the United States: 1980s surge of smokable crack cocaine, hitting full force in 1985 and reaching 28 states by 1986, driving addiction, violence, the 100:1 sentencing disparity, and lasting harm to young Black males.

Creativity and mental health

Creativity and mental health: research field on links between creative ability and psychiatric illness (mad-genius hypothesis, inverted-U with schizophrenia and bipolar spectrum) and benefits of creative activity for well-being.

Crisis hotline

A crisis hotline, also called a crisis line, is a phone, text, or chat service offering confidential emotional support to people in acute distress, including suicide risk.

Crisis intervention

Crisis intervention is a short-term psychological method providing immediate support, assessment, and stabilization during acute mental health crises, restoring coping before referral to longer-term care.

Culture-bound syndrome

Culture-bound syndrome, now called cultural concepts of distress in DSM-5, refers to patterns of mental distress recognized within specific cultures, such as koro, ataque de nervios, and taijin kyofusho, lacking formal diagnostic criteria.

CWC trial

CWC trial (NCT03429166), Connecting Women to Care, a VA-sponsored randomized trial led by Marylene Cloitre comparing home-based video-delivered STAIR versus present-centered therapy in 161 rural women veterans with military sexual trauma; STAIR produced larger PTSD reductions (d = 1.12 vs 0.78).