Glossary of Terms Commonly Used in Mental Health
This glossary provides definitions of many commonly used mental health terms and includes links to more information on many of the entries. Just choose a letter from the menu below to reach the page with the term you'd like to find.
B
Behavioral healthcare
Continuum of services for individuals at risk of, or suffering from, mental, addictive, or other behavioral health disorders.
Behavioral heath care firm
Specialized (for-profit) managed care organizations focusing on mental health and substance abuse benefits, which they term "behavioral healthcare." These firms offer employers and public agencies a managed mental health and substance abuse benefit.
Behavioral Therapy
As the name implies, behavioral therapy focuses on behavior-changing unwanted behaviors through rewards, reinforcements, and desensitization. Desensitization, or Exposure Therapy, is a process of confronting something that arouses anxiety, discomfort, or fear and overcoming the unwanted responses. Behavioral therapy often involves the cooperation of others, especially family and close friends, to reinforce a desired behavior.
Benchmark
The industry measure of best performance for a particular indicator or performance goal. The benchmarking process identifies the best performance in the industry (health care or non-health care) for a particular process or outcome, determines how that performance is achieved, and applies the lessons learned to improve performance.
Beneficiary
A person certified as eligible for health care services. A beneficiary may be a dependent or a subscriber.
Benefit Package
Services covered by a health insurance plan and the financial terms of such coverage. These include cost, limitation on the amounts of services, and annual or lifetime spending limits.
Binge-eating disorder
Binge-eating is an eating disorder characterized by frequent episodes of compulsive overeating, but unlike bulimia, the eating is not followed by purging. During food binges, individuals with this disorder often eat alone and very quickly, regardless of whether they feel hungry or full.
Biofeedback
Biofeedback is learning to control muscle tension and "involuntary" body functioning, such as heart rate and skin temperature; it can be a path to mastering one's fears. It is used in combination with, or as an alternative to, medication to treat disorders such as anxiety, panic, and phobias.
Biomedical Treatment
Medication alone, or in combination with psychotherapy, has proven to be an effective treatment for a number of emotional, behavioral, and mental disorders. Any treatment involving medicine is a biomedical treatment. The kind of medication a psychiatrist prescribes varies with the disorder and the individual being treated.
Bipolar Disorder
Extreme mood swings punctuated by periods of generally even-keeled behavior characterize this disorder. Bipolar disorder tends to run in families. This disorder typically begins in the mid-twenties and continues throughout life. Without treatment, people who have bipolar disorder often go through devastating life events such as marital breakups, job loss, substance abuse, and suicide.
Borderline Personality Disorder
Symptoms of borderline personality disorder, a serious mental illness, include pervasive instability in moods, interpersonal relationships, self-image, and behavior. The instability can affect family and work life, long-term planning, and the individual's sense of self-identity.
Bulimia nervosa
Bulimia nervosa is an eating disorder characterized by excessive eating. People who have bulimia will eat an excessive amount of food in a single episode and almost immediately make themselves vomit or use laxatives or diuretics (water pills) to get rid of the food in their bodies. This behavior often is referred to as the "binge/purge" cycle. Like people with anorexia, people with bulimia have an intense fear of gaining weight.
This glossary incorporates many of the entries provided in a mental health dictionary supplied by the US government's Department of Health and Human Services.
This page was last reviewed by , Tuesday, 22 April 2008.
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http://counsellingresource.com/types/glossary/b.html
