MENTAL STATUS EXAMINATION Flashcards
Cerebral trauma, seizures, and/or amnesia may be seen in what kind of disorientation?
Person disorientation
Psychiatric disorders, delirium, and cognitive impairment may be seen in what kind of disorientation?
Place disorientation
Anxiety, delirium, depression, and cognitive impairment may be seen in what kind of disorientation?
Time disorientation
What is the standardized, brief screening tool (takes about 10 mins) to assess cognitive function and to detect changes over time; consists of 11 items measuring, orientation, registration, attention and calculation, recall and language?
Mini-Mental Status Exam (MMSE or Folstein Test)
These are all signs of what?
- Significant memory loss
- Confusion
- Impaired communication
- Inappropriate affect
- Personal care difficulties
- Hazardous behavior
- Agitation
- Suspiciousness
Possible cognitive impairment
What is it called when you ask the patient to tell you the meaning of a fable, proverb, or metaphor?
Abstract reasoning
Asking the patient to do simple arithmetic without paper and pencil within 1 minute would be what?
Arithmetic Calculation
Asking the patient to write their name and address, or a dictated phase assesses what?
Writing ability
You can note a patients execution of motor skills by doing what?
Ask the patient to tie their shoe lace or comb their hair
What kind of memory is tested by asking the patient to listen and then repeat a sentence or a series of numbers?
Immediate recall
True or False
Recent memory is tested by giving the patient a short time to view four or five objects, saying you will ask about them in a few minutes; then ten minutes later, ask the patient to list the objects
True
What kind of memory is tested by asking the patient about verifiable past events?
Remote memory
Memory loss can result from what?
- Disease
- Infection
- Temporal lobe trauma
True or False
Impaired memory occurs with neurologic or psychiatric disorders
True
Impaired judgement may indicate things such as what?
- Mental retardation
- Emotional disturbance
- Dementia
- Psychosis
Determining whether there is any difficulty or discomfort in phonation (volume, quality, or pitch) is assessing a patients what?
Voice quality
Evaluating spontaneous speech for pronunciation and ease of expression (slurring, stuttering, hesitations) is assessing a patients what?
Articulation
Assessing the patients intentions or perceptions as being clearly conveyed is assessing what?
Coherence
What is pantomime or word substitution to avoid revealing that a word was forgotten?
Circumlocution
What is the repetition of a word, phrase, or gesture?
Preservation
What are disordered words or sentences ?
Flight of ideas or use of loose associations
What are words with meaning only to the patient?
Neologism
What are word choices based on sound so that words rhyme in a nonsensical way?
Clang association
What is known as echoing another persons words?
Echolalia
What is a speech disorder that can be repetitive or expressive, including hesitations and other speech rhythm disturbances; it can either result from facial muscle or tongue weakness or from neurologic damage to brain regions controlling speech and language?
Aphasia
What is speaking without prompting?
Spontaneous speech
What is the rhythm of speech?
Prosody
