Posted by deepu on October 21, 2001 at 09:33:51:
In Reply to: psych posted by sue on October 21, 2001 at 04:38:25:
dear sue,in brief,
abreaction is catharsis or expressing or letting out of strong emotions associatted with buried memory.
it may occour spontaneously and is more commonly used in psychotherapy by psychoanalysis,thiopentone,hypnosis for conditions like conversion disorders,anxiety disorders and other psychotic conditions when they are thought to be due to repressed emotions or feelings.
Hypomania is a lesser degree of mania, in which abnormalities of mood and behaviour are too persistent and marked to be included under cyclothymia but are not accompanied by hallucinations or delusions. There is a persistent mild elevation of mood (for at least several days on end), increased energy and activity, and usually marked feelings of well-being and both physical and mental efficiency. Increased sociability, talkativeness, overfamiliarity, increased sexual energy, and a decreased need for sleep are often present but not to the extent that they lead to severe disruption of work or result in social rejection. Irritability, conceit, and boorish behaviour may take the place of the more usual euphoric sociability.
Concentration and attention may be impaired, thus diminishing the ability to settle down to work or to relaxation and leisure, but this may not prevent the appearance of interests in quite new ventures and activities, or mild over-spending.
Diagnostic Guidelines
Several of the features mentioned above, consistent with elevated or changed mood and increased activity, should be present for at least several days on end, to a degree and with a persistence greater than described for cyclothymia. Considerable interference with work or social activity is consistent with a diagnosis of hypomania, but if disruption of these is severe or complete, mania should be diagnosed.
Differential Diagnosis
Hypomania covers the range of disorders of mood and level of activities between cyclothymia and mania. The increased activity and restlessness (and often weight loss) must be distinguished from the same symptoms occurring in hyperthyroidism and anorexia nervosa; early states of "agitated depression", particularly in late middle-age, may bear a superficial resemblance to hypomania of the irritable variety. Patients with severe obsessional symptoms may be active part of the night completing their domestic cleaning rituals, but their affect will usually be the opposite of that described here.
When a short period of hypomania occurs as a prelude to or aftermath of mania, it is usually not worth specifying the hypomania separately.