What term describes a client's rapid transition from one topic to another with some connection?

The term that describes a client's rapid transition from one topic to another, where there is some connection between the topics, is flight of ideas. This phenomenon is often seen in conditions such as mania, where a person exhibits a stream of thoughts that flows quickly and moves from one idea to another without significant logical connections. However, the key characteristic of flight of ideas is that there is some thematic continuity, which differentiates it from other thought process abnormalities.

In contrast, looseness of association represents a more severe disorganization in thought processes, where the connections between thoughts are very weak or nonexistent, leading to a fragmented line of thought that can seem chaotic. Tangential thinking involves shifting topics in a conversation but does not return to the original point, which is not consistent with flight of ideas since there is still a thread that connects the thoughts. Circumstantial thinking, on the other hand, includes excessive detail and digression before reaching the desired point, diverging from the swift transitions of flight of ideas. Therefore, flight of ideas is the most accurate descriptor for rapid topic transitions that still retain some connection.