Mental Status Exam

Question 1

MSE - 9 domains to assess

Answer 1

1. Appearance
2. Behavioral/Psychomotor activity
3. Attitude toward interviewer
4. Affect & Mood
5. Speech and Thought
6. Perceptual disturbances
7. Orientation & Consciousness
8. Memory & Intelligence
9. Reliability, judgment, & insight

Question 2

MSE

1. Appearance: To establish “?” for 2?

Answer 2

baseline
clothes/grooming
e.x. are layers of clothes appropriate?

Question 3

MSE

2. Behavioral/Psychomotor activity - pay attention to 2

Answer 3

tics (e.g. neurological condition/did he have it 3 weeks ago?)
malingering (exaggerating issues?)

Question 4

MSE

3. Attitude toward interviewer: Is he/she ??

Answer 4

Irritable / Cooperative

Question 5

MSE

4. Affect & Mood - what is difference?

Answer 5

Affect: Therapist’s interpretation of how clients present
Mood: How the CLIENTS describe they are feeling

Congruence - is affect matching to mood?

Question 6

MSE
5. Speech and Thought 3types?
What people with anxiety have?

Answer 6

normal/disorganized/tangential (opposite of lineal)

pressured speech

Question 7

MSE

6. Perceptual disturbances - does client ?2 things that others don’t?

Answer 7

hear or see

Question 8

MSE

7. Orientation & Consciousness - Oriented x 4?

Answer 8

person
place
times
events

Question 9

MSE

8. Memory & Intelligence - to rule out brain injury or dementia, what 3 tests do you do?

Answer 9

1. Serial seven - county backward from 100 by 7
2. Remember 3 things after 5 minutes
3. Spell ‘world” backwards

Question 10

MSE

9. Reliability, judgment, and insight - example question

Answer 10

Does the person show good judgment when asked what he/she would do if smelling smoke in crowded theater?

Question 11

Assessing suicide risk:

3 Questions to ask

Answer 11

1. Has the client considered how he or she might do it?
2. When?
3. What means would be used? Are those means accessible?

Question 12

Assessing suicide risk in adults:

1. Feelings of ?2
2. Previous ?
3. Concrete behavior & lethal ?
4. ? of suicide
5. ? about suicide
6. Lack of?
7. Beliefs that others would be better off
8. Advanced
9. Substance abuse

Answer 12

1. despair & hopelessness, worthlessness
2. suicide attempt
3. plan (where, when, & how)
4. Family history
5. Perseveration
6. support
7. age

Question 13

Assessing suicide risk in children/adolescents
1. Deterioration in personal ?
2. Decline in ?
3. Marked increase in sadness, moodiness, and sudden
tearfulness
4. Loss of?
5. Talk of?
6. Withdrawal from ?
7. Giving away possessions
8. Sudden departures from ?

Answer 13

1. habits
2. school achievement
3. appetite
4. death or dying
5. friends and family
6. past behaviors