Mental Status Exam Lab Flashcards
Restless
An inability to remain at rest, difficulty in concentrating, not being able to relax or being constantly uneasy.
Psychomotor slowing
Slowing of physical movements. May involve slowed speech, de-creased movement, and impaired cognitive function. It is common in patients with melancholic depression and those with psychotic fea-tures.
Facial grimacing
A facial expression in which your mouth and face are twisted in a way that shows disgust, disapproval, or pain.
Tics or tremors
Tremors are purposeless, rapid, repetitive, highly stereotyped move-ments. They differ from tics in being both more constant and rhythmic, whereas tics are irregular. In addition, the movement of tremors is generally of smaller amplitude.
Tardive dyskinesia
A persistent extrapyramidal side effect that usually appears after pro-longed treatment and persists even after the medication has been discontinued. TD consists of involuntary tonic muscular contractions that typically involve the tongue, fingers, toes, neck, trunk, or pelvis.
Disheveled appearance Unkempt
Unkempt is an adjective that literally means “not well-combed.” Messy or untidy appearance.
Immaculately groomed and alert
Having a neat and pleasant appearance that is produced with care.
Lethargic
Lethargy causes you to feel sleepy or fatigued and sluggish. This sluggishness may be physical or mental
Impoverished speech
Poverty of speech that results from impairment in thinking that affects language abilities. More specifically, it involves using fewer words, answering only what is directly asked, and speaking in a way that may be vague, repetitive, or overly concrete.
Pressure of speech
When you have pressured speech, you have an extreme need to share your thoughts, ideas, or comments. The speech will come out rapidly, and it doesn’t stop at appropriate intervals. It’s difficult to un-derstand what’s being said during pressured speech.
It’s also not possible to carry on a conversation because the person with pressured speech will not stop long enough for another person to speak.
Verbose
Verbosity is the action of talking too much or in a too elaborate way. Speech that uses an excess of words.
Dysphonia
Disorders of the voice. Having an abnormal voice. Changes to the voice can occur suddenly or gradually over time. The voice can be described as hoarse, rough, raspy, strained, weak, breathy, or gravely. There may be voice breaks where the voice completely stops or cuts out. There may be pitch changes, either higher or lower for the patient. The patient may have a complete loss of voice for a period of time as well.
Dysarthria
Dysarthria occurs when the muscles you use for speech are weak or you have diffi-culty controlling them. Dysarthria often causes slurred or slow speech that can be dif-ficult to understand.
Common causes of dysarthria include nervous system disorders and conditions that cause facial paralysis or tongue or throat muscle weakness. Certain medications also can cause dysarthria.
Aphasia
Aphasia is a language disorder caused by damage in a specific area of the brain that controls language expression and comprehension. Aphasia leaves a person unable to communicate effectively with others. Loss of language ability.
Mood and
Affect:
What is the
relation-ship?
- Mood: sustained emotion experiences that is reported by the patient
- Affect: what we look like
- Mood is like the season and affect is what it looks like
Perceptions
the process or result of becoming aware of objects, relationships, and events by means of the senses, which includes such activities as recognizing, observing, and discriminating.
