NLE Bullets for Psychiatric Nursing Review

• A basic assumption of psychoanalytic theory is that all behavior has meaning.
• Catharsis is the expression of deep feelings and emotions.
• According to the pleasure principle, the psyche seeks pleasure and avoids unpleasant experiences, regardless of the consequences.
• A patient who has a conversion disorder resolves a psychological conflict through the loss of a specific physical function (for example, paralysis, blindness, or inability to swallow). This loss of function is involuntary, but diagnostic tests show no organic cause.
• Chlordiazepoxide (Librium) is the drug of choice for treating alcohol withdrawal symptoms.
• For a patient who is at risk for alcohol withdrawal, the nurse should assess the pulse rate and blood pressure every 2 hours for the first 12 hours, every 4 hours for the next 24 hours, and every 6 hours thereafter (unless the patient’s condition becomes unstable).
• Alcohol detoxification is most successful when carried out in a structured environment by a supportive, nonjudgmental staff.
• The nurse should follow these guidelines when caring for a patient who is experiencing alcohol withdrawal: Maintain a calm environment, keep intrusions to a minimum, speak slowly and calmly, adjust lighting to prevent shadows and glare, call the patient by name, and have a friend or family member stay with the patient, if possible.
• The therapeutic regimen for an alcoholic patient includes folic acid, thiamine, and multivitamin supplements as well as adequate food and fluids.
• A patient who is addicted to opiates (drugs derived from poppy seeds, such as heroin and morphine) typically experiences withdrawal symptoms within 12 hours after the last dose. The most severe symptoms occur within 48 hours and decrease over the next 2 weeks.
• Reactive depression is a response to a specific life event.
• Projection is the unconscious assigning of a thought, feeling, or action to someone or something else.
• Sublimation is the channeling of unacceptable impulses into socially acceptable behavior.
• Repression is an unconscious defense mechanism whereby unacceptable or painful thoughts, impulses, memories, or feelings are pushed from the consciousness or forgotten.
• Hypochondriasis is morbid anxiety about one’s health associated with various symptoms that aren’t caused by organic disease.

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