Mental State Examination (MSE) & Assessments

Question 1

What is MSE?

Answer 1

A record of the client’s mental state DESCRIBED by the client and OBSERVED by the interviewer

Question 2

What is the purpose of an MSE?

Answer 2

• Speak common language with other clinicians

- Monitor/observe client’s mental health; history of the presenting issues/illness

Question 3

What are the Disorders of behaviour:

Answer 3

• Quality and quantity of MOTOR behaviour
• Abnormal movements interaction with the interviewer
• Any purposeless or aimless movements
• Tic: involuntary, spasmodic motor movements
• Akathisia: subjective feelings of muscular tension, causing restlessness and pacing
• Acting out: direct expression of an unconscious wish or impulse in action

Question 4

Appearance of Mental Health include:

Answer 4

• Mode of dress, odor, weight loss, evidence of self neglect or harm
• Facial expression, posture and gestures
• Eye contact
• Autonomic arousal (dry mouth, perspiration, dilated pupils)

Question 5

Disorders of Speech:

Answer 5

• Pressure of speech; rapid speech & difficult to interrupt
• Poverty of Speech; restriction in the speech used
• Dysarthria; difficulty in articulation of words

Question 6

What are the 5 types of Mood that can be experienced?

Answer 6

• Dysphoric mood; unpleasant mood
• Depression; psychopathological feeling of sadness
• Grief; sadness appropriate to a real loss
• Anhedonia; loss of interest in and withdrawal from all regular and pleasurable activities
• Perplexed mood; state of anxious bewilderment

Question 7

Define Affect

Answer 7

observed expression of emotion

Question 8

Define Inappropriate Affect

Answer 8

disharmony between the emotional feeling tone and the idea, though or speech accompanying it

Question 9

Define Blunted Affect

Answer 9

severe reduction in the intensity of the externalized feeling tone

Question 10

Define Labile affect

Answer 10

rapid and abrupt alteration in emotional feeling tone, unrelated to external stimuli

Question 11

Define Euthymic mood

Answer 11

normal range of mood

Question 12

Define Euphoria (content of thought)

Answer 12

intense excitement and happiness

Question 13

Define Alexithymia

Answer 13

inability or difficulty in describing or being aware of one’s emotions or moods

Question 14

Define Ambivalence

Answer 14

coexistence of two opposing impulses towards the same thing in the same person at the same time

Question 15

Define the following:

• Thought stream
• Form
• Content

Answer 15

• Stream; apparent speed
• Form; how well the individual thoughts are connected
• Content; phobias, obsessions, compulsions, delusions, over valued ideas, Suicidal/homicidal thoughts

Question 16

The types of disorders of thought include (5 types):

Answer 16

• Psychosis; inability to distinguish reality from fantasy
• Formal thought disorder
• Magical thinking; assume power
• Concrete thinking
• Abstract thinking

Question 17

Define Erotomania

Answer 17

delusional belief that someone is deeply in love with them

Question 18

The three Disorders of Perception include…

Answer 18

• Illusion; misconception or misinterpretation
• Hallucination; false sensory perception not associated with real external stimuli.
• Pseudohallucination; Hallucinations which appear to occur within the mind

Question 19

The three Disorders of consciousness include…

Answer 19

• Disorientation: disturbance in orientation
• Clouding of consciousness; incomplete clear mindedness with disturbances in perception and attitude
• Delirium: confused, disoriented reaction associated with fear and hallucinations

Question 20

The two Disorders of Memory are…?

Answer 20

• Dementia; deterioration of intellectual functioning

- Pseudodementia; clinical features resembling dementia not caused by an organic condition

Question 21

The Domestic & Community Skills Assessment (DACSA) is … ?

Answer 21

• Commonly used OT assessment
• Not aligned with a model
• Measures person & environment
• Covers domestic tasks
• 1 hr administration time

Question 22

The Assessment of Motor & Process Skills (AMPS) is … ?

Answer 22

• Focus is on the person
• Aligns with MOHO
• 30-40 minutes to administer
• Provides info on the quality of performance in ADLs
• Large evidence base–reliable and valid
• Requires specific training to administer

Question 23

The Depression Anxiety Stress Scale is … ?

Answer 23

• 42 item questionnaire covering the past week
• Objective Scoring: 0 (did not apply to me at all) – 4 (much/most of the time)
  3 scales (14 items each):
  – Depression ( eg.hopelessness & low self- esteem)
  – Anxiety (eg. arousal and fear)
  – Stress (eg. tension and agitation)

Question 24

Form of thought

Answer 24

• Flight of ideas; rapid, continuous speech with
constant shifting from one idea to another
• Loosening of associations; ideas shift form one subject to another in a completely unrelated way
• Word Salad; incoherent nature of words and phrases
• Circumstantiality; delay in reaching the point, but is finally achieved
• Tangentiality; inability to follow goal directed association of thought
• Perseveration; persisting response to a prior stimulus after a new stimulus has been introduced
• Clang associations; association of words similar in sound but not meaning
• Thought blocking; abrupt interruption of the train of thinking before a thought or idea has finished
• Neologism; new word created