Board Exam Bullets for Nurses

• Obsessive-compulsive disorder is an anxiety-related disorder.
• Al-Anon is a self-help group for families of alcoholics.
• Desensitization is a treatment for phobia, or irrational fear.
• After electroconvulsive therapy, the patient is placed in the lateral position, with the head turned to one side.
• A delusion is a fixed false belief.
• Giving away personal possessions is a sign of suicidal ideation. Other signs include writing a suicide note or talking about suicide.
• Agoraphobia is fear of open spaces.
• A person who has paranoid personality disorder projects hostilities onto others.
• To assess a patient’s judgment, the nurse should ask the patient what he would do if he found a stamped, addressed envelope. An appropriate response is that he would mail the envelope.
• After electroconvulsive therapy, the patient should be monitored for post-shock amnesia.
• A mother who continues to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation after a physician pronounces a child dead is showing denial.
• Transvestism is a desire to wear clothes usually worn by members of the opposite sex.
• Tardive dyskinesia causes excessive blinking and unusual movement of the tongue, and involuntary sucking and chewing.
• Trihexyphenidyl (Artane) and benztropine (Cogentin) are administered to counteract extrapyramidal adverse effects.
• To prevent hypertensive crisis, a patient who is taking a monoamine oxidase inhibitor should avoid consuming aged cheese, caffeine, beer, yeast, chocolate, liver, processed foods, and monosodium glutamate.
• Extrapyramidal symptoms include parkinsonism, dystonia, akathisia (“ants in the pants”), and tardive dyskinesia.
• One theory that supports the use of electroconvulsive therapy suggests that it “resets” the brain circuits to allow normal function.
• A patient who has obsessive-compulsive disorder usually recognizes the senselessness of his behavior but is powerless to stop it (ego-dystonia).
• In helping a patient who has been abused, physical safety is the nurse’s first priority.
• Pemoline (Cylert) is used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
• Clozapine (Clozaril) is contraindicated in pregnant women and in patients who have severe granulocytopenia or severe central nervous system depression.
• Repression, an unconscious process, is the inability to recall painful or unpleasant thoughts or feelings.
• Projection is shifting of unwanted characteristics or shortcomings to others (scapegoat).
• Hypnosis is used to treat psychogenic amnesia.
• Disulfiram (Antabuse) is administered orally as an aversion therapy to treat alcoholism.
• Ingestion of alcohol by a patient who is taking disulfiram (Antabuse) can cause severe reactions, including nausea and vomiting, and may endanger the patient’s life.
• Improved concentration is a sign that lithium is taking effect.
• Behavior modification, including time-outs, token economy, or a reward system, is a treatment for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
• For a patient who has anorexia nervosa, the nurse should provide support at mealtime and record the amount the patient eats.
• A significant toxic risk associated with clozapine (Clozaril) administration is blood dyscrasia.
• Adverse effects of haloperidol (Haldol) administration include drowsiness; insomnia; weakness; headache; and extrapyramidal symptoms, such as akathisia, tardive dyskinesia, and dystonia.
• Hypervigilance and déjà vu are signs of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
• A child who shows dissociation has probably been abused.
• Confabulation is the use of fantasy to fill in gaps of memory.

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