Mental state examination

Question 1

Summary of a mental state examination

Answer 1

ACSMTTPSI
Appearance and behaviour
Cognition
Speech
Mood/affect
Thought process/Form
Thought content
Perception
Suicide/homicide/self risk
Insight/Judgement

Question 2

Appearance and behaviour

Answer 2

Appearance: Age, gender, race, build, hairstyle/colour, level of hygiene, mode of dress

Behaviour: eye contact, cooperativeness, motor activity, abnormal movements, expressive gestures

Question 3

Cognition

Answer 3

Level of consciousness/alertness, memory, orientation (time, place, person), concentration

Question 4

Speech

Answer 4

Articulation disturbance, rate (rapid, pressured, slow retarded), volume (loud, quiet, whisper), quantity (poverty of speech, monotonous, mutism)

Question 5

Mood/affect

Answer 5

-Mood: elevated, euphoric, elevated, depressed, labile
Affect: irritable, anxious, blunted
range and intensity
stability
appropriateness and congruity

Range of emotions, depth of emotions, appropriateness of emotions, volatility of mood expressed

Question 6

Thought form/process

Answer 6

Goal directed/ organised, amount of speed of thought, continuity of ideas (concrete thinking, irrelevance), disturbances in language (word salad)

Question 7

thought content

Answer 7

Delusions (fixed, false, belief, out of cultural norms), phobias/obsessions, thought insertion and withdrawal

Question 8

Perception

Answer 8

Hallucinations (auditory, visual, olfactory), illusions, depersonalisation, derealisation

Question 9

Insight and judgement

Answer 9

Capacity to understand illness, problem, symptom
Insight (knowledge)
Judgement (actions)

Question 10

Suicide/risk

Answer 10

to self, to others or from neglect