Separation Anxiety Glossary of Terms

1. Phobias Slideshow Pictures
2. Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) Slideshow Pictures
3. Take the Panic Attacks Quiz!

Acute: Of abrupt onset, in reference to a disease. Acute often also connotes an illness th...

Alprazolam: A benzodiazepine sedative that causes dose-related depression of the central n...

American Academy of Pediatrics: AAP. Its member pediatricians "dedicate their efforts and ...

American Psychiatric Association: A medical specialty society with over 35,000 US and inte...

Amygdala: 1. The amygdaloid nucleus in the brain. 2. The tonsils. These...

Antidepressant: Anything, and especially a drug, used to prevent or treat depression.

Anxiety: A feeling of apprehension and fear, characterized by physical symptoms such as pa...

Anxiety disorder: A chronic condition characterized by an excessive and persistent sense o...

Benzodiazepines: A class of drugs that act as tranquilizers and are commonly used in the t...

Brain: The portion of the central nervous system that is located within the skull. It func...

Breathing: The process of respiration, during which air is inhaled into the lungs through ...

Cardiovascular: Relating to the circulatory system, which comprises the heart and blood ve...

Cortisol: A metabolite of the primary stress hormone cortisone. Cortisol is an essential f...

Depression: An illness that involves the body, mood, and thoughts and that affects the way...

Diagnosis: 1 The nature of a disease; the identification of an illness. 2 A ...

Disc: Shortened terminology for an intervertebral disc, a disk-shaped piece of specialized...

Dizziness: Painless head discomfort with many possible causes including disturbances of ...

DSM-IV: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fourth edition, the officia...

Endocrine: Pertaining to hormones and the glands that make and secrete them into the blood...

Family therapy: A type of psychotherapy designed to identify family patterns that contribu...

FDA: Food and Drug Administration.

Fear of the dark: Pathological fear of the dark, an abnormal and persistent dread of the d...

Food and Drug Administration: An agency within the US Public Health Service that provides ...

Group therapy: 1) A type of psychiatric care in which several patients meet with one or m...

Headache: A pain in the head with the pain being above the eyes or the ears, behind the he...

Heart: The muscle that pumps blood received from veins into arteries throughout the body. ...

Hyperventilation: Overbreathing. Hyperventilation causes dizziness, lightheadedness, a sen...

Hypoglycemia: Low blood sugar (glucose). Hypoglycemia may be associated with symptoms such...

Indicate: In medicine, to make a treatment or procedure advisable because of a particular ...

Lightheadedness: A feeling you are "going to faint." Lightheadedness is medically distinc...

Maternal: 1. Pertaining to the mother as, for example, the maternal mortality rate....

Meditation: A typically self-directed practice for relaxing the body and calming the mind....

Metabolic: Relating to metabolism, the whole range of biochemical processes that occur wit...

Muscle: Muscle is the tissue of the body which primarily functions as a source of power. T...

Nausea: Stomach queasiness, the urge to vomit. Nausea can be brought on by many causes, in...

Palpitations: Unpleasant sensations of irregular and/or forceful beating of the heart. In ...

Pediatrics: The field of medicine that is concerned with the health of infants, children, ...

Pharmacy: A location where prescription medications are sold. A pharmacy is constantly sup...

Prognosis: The forecast of the probable outcome or course of a disease; the patient's chan...

Psychiatric: Pertaining to or within the purview of psychiatry, the medical specialty conc...

Psychiatry: The medical specialty that is concerned with the prevention, diagnosis, and tr...

Psychosomatic: Relating to both the mind and the body or to the mind-body interrelationshi...

Recurrent: Appearing or occurring again. For example, a recurrent fever is a fever that ha...

Rejection: In transplantation biology, when the body's immune system attacks transplanted ...

Reuptake: The reabsorption of a secreted substance by the cell that originally produced an...

Rule out: Term used in medicine, meaning to eliminate or exclude something from considera...

Sensitivity: 1. In psychology, the quality of being sensitive. As, for example, sen...

Separation anxiety: A developmental stage during which a child experiences anxiety when se...

Separation anxiety disorder: Excessive anxiety concerning separation from home or from tho...

Serotonin: A neurotransmitter that is involved in the transmission of nerve impulses. Sero...

Somatic: 1. Relating to the body. a. As distinguished from the mind (the psy...

Suicidal: Pertaining to suicide. the taking of ones own life. As in a suicidal gesture, su...

Temple: The area just behind and to the side of the forehead and the eye, above the side o...

Therapy: The treatment of disease. Therapy is synonymous with treatment.

Xanax: See: Alprazolam.