diagnosis and treatment of mental illness. Forensic psychiatry deals with application of psychiatry in the administration of justice MENTAL ILLNESS Definition : Mental illness can be defined as a disease of the mind or the personality in which there is derangement of the mental or emotional processes and impairment of behavior control. 1) The intelligence is weakened or perverted, but the insane person may not show physical weakness. 2) The law has not defined insanity. 3) The term is used for those persons who are unable to adopt themselves to the ordinary social requirements, due to mental disease. 4) The law is most frequently concerned with “mental impairment” and not “mental illness”. MEDICOLEGAL ASPECTS Forensic psychiatry is involved to determine responsibility for crimes, sexual psychopathy(rape) and other sexual problems such as homosexuality, transvestism, pedophilia, fetishism,etc. CAUSES OF MENTAL ILLNESS An abnormal mental state may be due to functional psychosis, to substance misuse, to an abnormal metabolic state, such as hypoglycemia, or due to less common problems, such as learning disability, organic brain disease or head injury In abnormal mental state, the effects of stress anxiety, fear or anger may coexist with intoxication of some kind and the behaviour, demeanour and appearance should be observed. COMMON TERMS IN PSYCHIATRY ABRECATION: Reviving and bringing into consciousness, forgotten and other traumatic experiences or repressed emotions from unconscious level by catharsis. AFFECT: Emotion, feeling or mood, eg liability of mood, cyclothymia, flattening, incongruity and inappropriateness of affect. AFFECTIVE DISORDER: The psychiatric disorder in which the chief feature is a relatively prolonged affective change of an abnormal degree, that is depression and mania. APASIA: The loss of ability to express meaning by the use of speech or writing or to understand spoken or written lamguage. ILLUSION Illusion is a false interpretation by the senses of an external object or stimulus which has a real existence. Eg:1) When a person sees a dog and mistakes it for a lion.2) A string hanging in a room is mistaken as a snake. A sane person may experience illusion, but is capable of correcting the false impressions but an insane person continues to believe in illusion, even though real facts are clearly pointed out. Illusions are a feature of psychoses, particularly of organic type. DELUSION Delusion is a false belief in something which is not a fact, and which persists even after its falsity has been clearly demonstrated. Delusion in insane person is a symptom of brain disease. It is under the control of emotional but not rational forces. They are found in epileptic, affective and schizophrenic phycoses. Delusions are not seen in anxiety neurosis and other neurotic illnesses. TYPES OF DELUSIONS Grandeur or Exaltation Persecution (paranoid) Reference Influence Infidelity Self-reproach Nihilistic Hypochondriacal Other types are of jealousy, religion,etc. HALLUCINATION Hallucination is a false sense perception without any external object or stimulus to produce it. They are purely imaginary, and may affect any or all the special senses. Visual hallucinations are commonest in orgnic mental disorders, while the auditory hallucinations are the commonest in functional disorders. TYPES OF HALLUCINATIONS VISUAL AUDITORY OLFACTORY GUSTATORY TACTILE PSYCHOMOTAR COMMAND MICROPTIC OR MACROTOPIC SEXUAL THANK YOU