Sleep Disturbance

Drowsiness
Feeling abnormally sleepy or tired during the day is commonly known as drowsiness. Drowsiness may lead to additional symptoms, such as forgetfulness or falling asleep at inappropriate times.A variety of things may cause drowsiness. These can rang  More »
HLCMS

Irritable Mood
Irritability is a feeling of agitation that can occur when someone is provoked. It can also be a symptom of a mental disorder or medical condition. Irritability generally causes a person to feel frustrated easily. Often this frustration results  More »
HLCMS

Indifferent Mood
Apathy can be defined as an absence or suppression of emotion, feeling, concern or passion. Further, apathy is an indifference to things generally found to be exciting or moving.  More »
Gale Encyclopedia of Mental Disorders

Depression
Depression, also known as depressive disorders or unipolar depression, is a mental illness characterized by a profound and persistent feeling of sadness or despair and/or a loss of interest in things that once were pleasurable. Disturbance in slee...  More »
Gale Encyclopedia of Alternative Medicine

Anxiety
Systematic desensitization is a technique used to treat phobias and other extreme or erroneous fears based on principles of behavior modification .  More »
Gale Encyclopedia of Mental Disorders

Stress
Stress is defined as an organism's total response to environmental demands or pressures. When stress was first studied in the 1950s, the term was used to denote both the causes and the experienced effects of these pressures. More recently, however...  More »
Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine

Obesity
Obesity is an abnormal accumulation of body fat, usually 20% or more over an individual's ideal body weight. Obesity is associated with increased risk of illness, disability, and death. The branch of medicine that deals with the study and treatmen...  More »
Gale Encyclopedia of Alternative Medicine

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
Post-traumatic stress disorder, often abbreviated as PTSD, is a complex disorder in which the affected person's memory, emotional responses, intellectual processes, and nervous system have all been disrupted by one or more traumatic experiences. I...  More »
Gale Encyclopedia of Mental Disorders

History and Physical Exam
The health status of populations and of individuals is assessed for many reasons. Assessing needs for care helps guide the allocation of resources— diagnostic assessments guide treatment, prognostic assessments contribute to planning, and assessin...  More »
Gale Encyclopedia of Public Health

Full Sleep Study
Polysomnography is a study or test done while a person is fully asleep. You will be observed while you sleep so that your doctor can record data about your sleep patterns and identify any sleep disorders. Your doctor will measure your brain waves,  More »
HLCMS

Pulse Oximetry
The pulse oximeter is a photoelectric instrument for measuring oxygen saturation of the blood . A pulse oximeter uses infrared light and a photo sensor to detect the amount of oxygen in a patient's blood. (Illustration by Argosy . Courtesy of Gale...  More »
Gale Encyclopedia of Nursing and Allied Health

Depression Screening
The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) is a series of questions developed to measure the intensity, severity, and depth of depression in patients with psychiatric diagnoses. Its long form is composed of 21 questions, each designed to assess a specifi...  More »
Gale Encyclopedia of Mental Disorders

Thyroid Function Test
The thyroid is a small gland, shaped like a butterfly, which is located in the lower-front part of your neck. Your doctor can feel your thyroid by pressing his or her fingers gently against your throat. The thyroid is responsible for helping to re  More »
HLCMS

Cognitive Behavior Therapy
A therapeutic approach based on the principle that maladaptive moods and behavior can be changed by replacing distorted or inappropriate ways of thinking with thought patterns that are healthier and more realistic. Cognitive therapy is an approach...  More »
Gale Encyclopedia of Childhood and Adolescence

Hypnotherapy
Hypnotherapy is the treatment of a variety of health conditions by hypnotism or by inducing prolonged sleep. Pioneers in this field, such as James Braid and James Esdaile discovered that hypnosis could be used to successfully anesthetize patients ...  More »
Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine

Individual Psychotherapy
The treatment of mental or emotional disorders and adjustment problems through the use of psychological techniques rather than through physical or biological means.  More »
Gale Encyclopedia of Mental Disorders

Melatonin
Melatonin is a hormone produced in the brain by the pineal gland from the amino acid tryptophan. The synthesis and release of melatonin are stimulated by darkness and suppressed by light, suggesting the involvement of melatonin in circadian rhythm...  More »
NaturalStandard

Meditation
Various forms of meditation have been practiced for thousands of years throughout the world, with many techniques originating in Eastern religious practices. In modern times, numerous meditation types are in use, often outside of their original re...  More »
NaturalStandard

Yoga
Yoga is an ancient system of relaxation, exercise, and healing with origins in Indian philosophy. Early descriptions of yoga are written in Sanskrit, the classical literary language of India. The first known work is "The Yoga Sutras," written more...  More »
NaturalStandard

Massage
Various forms of therapeutic superficial tissue manipulation have been practiced for thousands of years across cultures. Chinese use of massage dates to 1600 BC, and Hippocrates made reference to the importance of physicians being experienced with...  More »
NaturalStandard

Acupuncture
The practice of acupuncture originated in China 5,000 years ago. Today it is widely used throughout the world and is one of the main pillars of Chinese medicine. There are many different varieties of the practice of acupuncture, both in the Orient...  More »
NaturalStandard

Acupressure
Acupressure is a form of touch therapy that utilizes the principles of acupuncture and Chinese medicine. In acupressure, the same points on the body are used as in acupuncture, but are stimulated with finger pressure instead of with the insertion ...  More »
Gale Encyclopedia of Alternative Medicine