Mental State Examination Flashcards
What are the components of a mental state examination
Appearance Behaviour Speech Mood Affect Thoughts Perception Cognition Insight
Appearance
Do they look their age? Physique Clothing Evidence of drug abuse Tattoos Neglect Facial Expression Signs of physical illness posture
Behaviour
Description of what the patient is doing Is it appropriate Psychomotor agitation Eye contact Attitude/rapport
Speech
Form Pressure Poverty Spontaneous Latency Rate, tone, volume Articulation Accent Sudden ilences Vocab Stammar, dysarthria
Mood
Objective and subjective
Neutral, euthymic, dysphoric, euphoric, anxious, angry, apathetic
Affect
Congruent/incongruent
Intensity- normal, blunter, exagerated
Perception
Hallucinations
DelusionIllusions
Derealisation/depersonalisation
Thoughts
Form
Tempo
Thought disorder
Flight of ideas
Cognition
serial 7s Digit span orientation memory- remote, recent language visuospatial calculation
Insight
Four A’s Awareness of symptoms
Attribution to mental disorder
Appraisal
Acceptance of treatment
What is anautognosia
Pts not aware of their symptoms
What is dysautognosia
Patient does not attribute their symptoms to a mental disorder
What is thought blocking
Occurs when the patient will be speaking and suddenly go silent as their thoughts have just stopped
What is knights move thinking
Thoughts jump from one topic to another with no connection between them
What is tangential thinking
Wandering from topic and never returning or giving info requested
A -> G -> B
What is circumstantiality
Give excessive unnecessary detail when answering a question but the person does eventually answer the question
ie goes round in a circle
what is a neologism
patient makes up new word or phrase using existing words or phrases in bizarre ways which have no generally accepted meaning but are meaning full to the patient eg paperskate= pen, headshoe=hat
Preoccupation
An idea/beliefe which is not fixed or intrusive but has an undue prominence in the persons mind
Overvalued idea
an unreasonable sustained belief that is hel with less delusion intensity eg hypochondriasis
obsessions
undesired, unpleasant intrusive thought that cannot be suppressed
What is a delusion
fixed false belief inappropriate to social background held firmly in the face of a logical argument not modified by experinec usually very individualised
