Mental Status Exam Flashcards
Extension of physical exam
Mental status exam
Includes both subjective and objective data
Mental status exam
To aid in diagnostic prognostic and therapeutic thinking
Mental status exam
Five elements of mental status exam
Appearance
Behavior
Thought process
Cognition
Insight and judgment
Appearance
Clothing
grooming
body habits
scars
acute or chronic injury
posture or location
odors
track marks
tattoos or piercing
religious symbol or attire
Behavior
Level of agitation
eye contact
gait
speech
mood
affect
Thought process
Hallucination
Illusion
Delusion
Seeing or hearing things that aren’t there
Hallucination
Misinterpreting sights or sounds that are there
Illusion
Fixed or false beliefs in spite of contradicting evidence
Delusion
11 types of delusion
Control - outside force
Erotomanic - higher status in love with patient
Grandiose - inflated sense of self worth and power
Somatic - physical defect
Reference - unrelated events apply to them
Persecutory - trying to cause harm
Idea of reference - idea that something refers to you when it does not
Thought insertion - mind reading
Paranoia - people are out to get you
Thought blocking - you can’t finish your thought
Suicidal ideation - intent and plan of killing
Cognition
Dementia
delirium
Insight and judgement
Insight - awareness of one’s own situation
Judgement ability to anticipate the consequences of one’s behavior
Mse of children are the same as adult except
Need simple phrases
Collaborate info
Direct question rather than open ended
Use play media
May not provide accurate time
Depends on developmental level
Assess interaction between child and parents
Interview parent and child separately
Children provide better info about internalizing
Parents provide better info about behavior
Adapt to age
Difficulty putting feelings to words and use or conduct assessment in playroom
Preschool children
Able to use constructs and long explanation and establish report through competitive games
School-aged children
Egocentric, self conscious, and fear of shame. Tell info that will be shared to parents.
Adolescents
Key aspects of thought process in MSE
Logical and coherent
Circumstantiality
Tangentiality
Flight of ideas
Loose association
Word salad
Perseveration
Thought blocking
Clang association
Well organized and goal directed thoughts
Logical and coherent
Excessive unnecessary details
Circumstantiality
Patient goes off topic and never returns to the original point
Tangentiality
Continuous speech with frequent topic changes
Flight of ideas
Disorganized thinkings where ideas are loosely connected
Loose association
Lack of logical connection
Word salad
Repetitive response
Perseveration
Sudden stopping of speech
Thought blocking
Driven by rhyming
Clang association
