1 - Mental State Examination Flashcards

1
Q

What are the 7 components of the MSE?

A
1 - Appearance and behaviour
2 - Speech
3 - Emotion: mood and affect
4 - Perception
5 - Thought
6 - Insight
7 - Cognition
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2
Q

List some things to note when assessing appearance and behaviour:

A
  • Clothing
  • Self-care
  • Body language
  • Eye-contact
  • Psychomotor retardation
  • EPSE from antipsychotics
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3
Q

List some things to note when assessing speech:

A
  • Rate
  • Rhythm
  • Volume
  • Content
  • Quantity
  • Tone
  • Dysarthria
  • Dysphasia
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4
Q

How would you report a patients emotion in the MSE?

A

Mood:

  • Objectively (your impression)
  • Subjectively (their impression)

Affect:

  • Blunted/flat
  • Appropriate/inappropriate/incongruous
  • Stable/labile
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5
Q

If a patient reports hallucinations, where in the MSE would you document this?

A

Perception

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6
Q

Name the types of hallucinations:

A
  • Visual
  • Auditory (2nd/3rd person, running commentary)
  • Olfactory
  • Gustatory
  • Somatic
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7
Q

What are the common causes of visual hallucinations?

A
  • Substance misuse
  • Organic brain disease
  • Hyperactive delirium
  • Migraines
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8
Q

What are the common causes of auditory hallucinations?

A
  • schizophrenia
  • severe depression + psychosis
  • mania + psychosis
  • middle/inner ear disease
  • auditory nerve disease
  • delirium
  • alcohol
  • substance misuse
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9
Q

What is meant by depersonalisation?

A

Feeling of detachment from normal sense of self

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10
Q

What is meant by derealisation?

A

Feeling of unreality ie life is a stage set, Truman show

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11
Q

What are the 3 components of thought?

A

1) Thought content
2) Thought form
3) Thought stream

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12
Q

Name some thoughts which are classified as abnormal thought content:

A
  • Delusions
  • Obsessional thoughts
  • Preoccupations/overvalued ideas
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13
Q

Define delusion:

A

Fixed, false beliefs which are firmly held despite evidence to the contrary, and go against the individual’s normal social and cultural belief system

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14
Q

Name some types of delusions:

A
  • Grandiose
  • Persecutory
  • Nihilistic
  • Hypochondriacal
  • Guilt
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15
Q

Define obsessional thoughts:

A

Distressing thoughts which enter the mind despite the patient’s effort to resist them

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16
Q

Define preoccupations/overvalued ideas:

A

Strongly held beliefs which are important in 4 disorders: depressive, anxiety, eating, sexual. They can be put out of the mind with effort.

17
Q

What types of abnormal thought form are often seen in schizophrenia?

A
  • Loosening of association ie derailment of thought, word salad, tangential thinking
  • Neologisms
18
Q

What type of abnormal thought form is often seen in dementia?

A

Perseveration

= uncontrollable and inappropriate repetition of words/gestures/phrase

19
Q

Name some types of ‘loosening of association’ of thought form:

A
  • Tangential thinking
  • Word salad
  • Derailment of thought (Knight’s move)
20
Q

Name some types of abnormal thought form:

A
  • Loosening of association
  • Circumstantiality
  • Neologisms
  • Perseveration
21
Q

What is circumstantiality?

A

A disorder of thought form, where thinking is slow with unnecessary details/digressions.
Seen in obsessional personalities and learning disabilities.

22
Q

What is a neologism?

A

Words and phrases devised by the patient. A disorder of thought form. Seen in autism and schizophrenia.

23
Q

What disorders of thought stream are sometimes seen in mania?

A
  • Flight of ideas

- Pressured thought

24
Q

Which disorder of thought stream is seen in depressive illnesses?

A

Retardation - slow thinking

25
Q

Which disorder of thought stream is seen in schizophrenia?

A

Thought blocking - sudden cessation of flow of thoughts

26
Q

What is meant by thought blocking?

A

Sudden cessation of flow of thoughts

27
Q

What factors are important to assess for cognition?

A
  • Consciousness
  • Orientation
  • Attention
  • Concentration
  • Memory