CNS Flashcards
what will we be able to evaluate mental status through in the exam?
Cortex Basal ganglion Brain stem Cerebellum Cranial nerves
what are the 5 major categories in mental health exam?
Appearance Affect Language Thought Process/perception Cognitive function/Executive fx
what can change awareness? what are different descriptions of awareness?
- State of awareness of self and environment. Impaired by disease of the brainstem reticular activating system, or damage in parts of both hemispheres
Alert→ awake, not sleepy or tired, responding appropriately to environment
Lethargic→ (sleepy): awake, but tending to fall asleep if not gently stimulated
Stuporous → falling asleep unless vigorously stimulated
Comatose→ a sleep-like state from which the patient cannot be awakened
what should clinical exam of language include?
Spontaneous speech Naming Comprehension Repetition Reading Writing
aphasia
Disorder in producing or understanding language
aphasia may be the only sign of a new neurological disease, such as stroke, tumor or head trauma, or recent seizure
paraphasia
substituting similar sounding syllables or words
- “paraphasis errors”: pen for pencil or plentil for pencil
prosody
the melody or variable tone of speech
aphasia
disorder in understanding or producing language: spoken or written
- testing for aphasia: naming, comprehension, repetition and reading/writing
- due to localized lesion of dominant hemisphere (70% are left hemisphere dominant)
- can be caused by damage to either Broca’s or Wernicke’s area
dysphasia
impairment in USE of speech that is clear
i.e. failure to arrange properly in sentence
dysarthria
imperfect articulation due to lack of motor coordination; damaging event CNS or PNS, language comprehension and use may be fine.
Wernicke’s area
transforms sensory input –> neural word : giving words meaning
Broca’s area:
transforms neural word representations to spoken word
Broca’s aphasia
“expressive aphasia” - have understanding of spoken language, but can’t articulate
Wernicke’s aphasia:
have ability to produce “fluent speech” but it makes no sense
apraxia
inability to turn verbal request into motor performance
(often seen with aphasic patients)
patients have difficulty with complex yet familiar activities, such as dressing or taking a shower, writing with a pen or pencil, using a comb or toothbrush, mimicking an examiner
Orientation testing?
- PERSON (name): seldom lost unless the patient has aphasia or schizophrenia
- PLACE (location): often lost in some hospitalized patients, or delirious/extremely demented outpatients
- TIME: most commonly lost of these three; include time of day, day of week, month, year if possible
recent vs. remote memory
RECENT Memory: the ability to store new information, up to a few days
REMOTE Memory: more distant memories. Includes autobiographical (dates of graduation, marriage, etc.) or historical (date of wars, elections, sports, etc.)
Alzheimer’s dementia almost always begins as a progressive loss of memory; first recent, and then distant memory
how can insight be evaluated?
- explain a proverb
- explain a situational choice
- compare similarities/difference betwen objects
delerium
acute confusion episode, may be due to infection, uremia, alcohol withdrawal. Disoriented, poor judgment, delusions common, attention poor, mood fluctuates
“Everything’s an Emergency!”
- if they have poor attention, think delerium