Mental Status Exam

Question 1

Outline of MSE

Answer 1

Appearance
Behaviour
Speech
Sensorium and Cognition
Perception
Mood
Affect
Thought Disorders
SI/HI
Judgment and Insight

Question 2

Appearance:

Answer 2

a. gender and culture
b. age
c. attire
d. grooming and hygiene
e. build
f. physical abnormalities
g. jewelry and cosmetics
h. other features

Question 3

Behaviour:

Answer 3

a. agitation
b. hyperactivity
c. psychomotor retardation
d. catatonia
e. compulsions
f. tardive dyskinesia (involuntary movements related to antipsychotic use)
g. tremors

Question 4

Echopraxia

Answer 4

involuntary imitation of other’s movements

Question 5

Waxy flexibility

Answer 5

hold body posture imposed by another for a long time

Question 6

Akinesia

Answer 6

motor inhibition, reduced movements

Question 7

Akathisia

Answer 7

subjective feeling of muscular tension from antipsychotic meds which causes restlessness, pacing

can be mistaken for psychotic agitation

Question 8

Speech:

Answer 8

a. rate and rhythm
b. volume
c. tone
d. clarity
e. articulation
f. pressure
g. hesitancy
h. fluency
i. spontaneity
j. response time
k. neologism
l. profanity

Question 9

Sensorium and Cognition:

Answer 9

a. orientation (time, place, person)
b. attention (selective inattention, distractibility, hypervigilance)
c. concentration
d. memory (remote and recent events)
e. information and intelligence (knowledge, cultural and educational)
f. abstract thought (culture may be an issue)

Question 10

Perception:

Answer 10

a. hallucinations (visual, auditory, tactile, gustatory, olfactory)
b. illusions

Question 11

Affect:

Answer 11

• present emotional responsiveness
• congruence with mood
• depth: expansive, euthymic, constricted, blunted, flat

Question 12

Mood:

Answer 12

a. labile
b. subjective description
b. includes a review of last few days

depressed, grief, anhedonia, dysphoric, euthymic, elevated, elation, expansive, extasy, euphoria

Question 13

Thought Content:

Answer 13

preoccupations
ruminations
paranoia
obsessions
compulsions
phobias
ideas of reference
thought insertion
thought withdrawal
thought broadcasting
delusions
SI/HI

Question 14

Suicidal Ideation

Answer 14

a. fleeting thoughts
b. passive thoughts
c. active thoughts
d. intent
e. plan
f. means
g. access

Question 15

Homicidal Ideation

Answer 15

a. fantasies
b. active
c. plan
d. intent
e. access to means

Question 16

Thought Process:

Answer 16

poverty of thought
thought blocking
tangential thinking
circumstantial (overinclusiveness)
loose associations (derailment)
flight of ideas
clanging (words rhyming with no meaning)
punning
word salad
neologisms (coining new word or using word for new meaning)
racing thoughts

Question 17

Insight and Judgment:

Answer 17

a. insight
- awareness and understanding of illness
- understanding of the need for help

b. judgment
- ability to judge outcome of their behaviour
- choose appropriately

Question 18

Reliability

Answer 18

Judgment about the client’s truthfulness, accuracy of information received