Assessment of Mental Status and Sensation

Question 1

expressive aphasia

Answer 1

difficulty expressing thoughts through words spoken or written, Broca’s area, motor aphasia (anterior)

Question 2

receptive aphasia

Answer 2

difficulty receiving/understanding language, spoken or written, wernickes area, sensory aphasia (posterior)

Question 3

global aphasia

Answer 3

both expressive and receptive

Question 4

signs of touch sense deprivation

Answer 4

kids: inability to perform developmental tasks related to grasping objects or drawing
Adults: clumsiness, overreaction, or underreaction to painful stimulus, pins and needles

Question 5

signs of smell sensory deprivation

Answer 5

kids: difficulty indiscriminating noxious odors
adults: failure to react to strong odor

Question 6

signs of taste sense deprivation

Answer 6

kids: inability to tell whether food is salty or sweet
adults: change in appetite and excessive use of seasoning, weight change

Question 7

stereognosis

Answer 7

the sense that allows a person to recognize the shape, size, and texture of an object

Question 8

stereognosis testing

Answer 8

ask the patient to close their eyes, place the object in hand, and have them identify; altered function may indicate parietal lobe or sensory nerve tract disfunction

Question 9

graphesthia

Answer 9

ability to discriminate outlines, number words, or symbols traced on skin, failure may mean parietal lobe lesion

Question 10

discrimination assessment

Answer 10

testing the ability of the cerebral cortex to interpret and integrate information. (stereognosis and graphesthesia)

Question 11

GCS

Answer 11

Glasgow coma scale, tests awareness, 8 or below means you are in a coma, measures eye opening, verbal response, and motor response

Question 12

dermatomes

Answer 12

areas of skin innervated by dorsal root nerves, spinal cord injury would alter function of these areas, uses to assess skin sensation and spinal cord

Question 13

AOX3

Answer 13

alert and oriented times 3 (can identify person, time and place)

Question 14

AOX4

Answer 14

alert and oriented times 4 (can identify person, time, place, and situation)

Question 15

LOC

Answer 15

level of conciousness

Question 16

LOC- alert

Answer 16

awake and readily aroused

Question 17

LOC-lethargic

Answer 17

not fully alert, drifts off when not stimulated

Question 18

LOC-obtunded

Answer 18

sleeps most of the time, difficult to arouse

Question 19

LOC-stuptor/semi coma

Answer 19

sleepy, limited/minimal response

Question 20

LOC-coma

Answer 20

completely unconscious

Question 21

MMSE

Answer 21

mini-mental state exam, pen and paper test if cognitive function, good to detect dementia and delirium; scale of 1-30, 20-30 is normal

Question 22

Mini-cog

Answer 22

3 word registration, clock drawing, 3 word recall, screen for cognitive impairment in healthy adults

Question 23

4 types of reflexes

Answer 23

deep tendon reflex (patellar), superficial (corneal), visceral (pupillary response to light), pathological (Babinskis)

Question 24

deep tendon reflexes

Answer 24

test with reflex hammer and compare bilaterally, there is 5 and we will test patella, graded from 0-5

Question 25

plantar reflex (babinski)

Answer 25

stroke the lateral aspect of the sole from the heel to the ball of the foot, toes should clench down (Babinski is abnormal and would make toes go up)

Question 26

factors effecting sensory function

Answer 26

age, meaningful stimuli, amount of stimuli, social interaction, environmental factors, cultural factors

Question 27

kinesthetic

Answer 27

enables a person to be aware of the position and movement of body parts without seeing them

Question 28

components of a full neuro assessment

Answer 28

mental and emotional status, intellectual function, cranial nerve function, sensory function, motor function, reflexes

Question 29

when is a comprehensive mental status exam necessary?

Answer 29

initial screening shows anxiety or depression, behavior changes (memory loss, bad social interaction), brain lesions, aphasia, signs of psychiatric mental illness

Question 30

delirium

Answer 30

acute confusion, fluctuating, hours-weeks, altered consciousness, increased or decreased psychomotor changes, may accompany acute illness like pneumonia

Question 31

dementia

Answer 31

insidious onset, progressive, usually clear consciousness, normal attentions until very advanced stage, normal psychomotor changes

Question 32

depression

Answer 32

acute or insidious onset, chronic course, clear consciousness, decreased attention, slowed psychomotor changed if severe