Terminology

Question 1

what is covered in a mental state examination

Answer 1

appearance
behaviour
speech 
mood
affect
thought
perception (hallucination)
cognition
insight (recognise unwell)

Question 2

mood vs affect

Answer 2

mood = subjective - how situation makes patient feel

affect = objective - how patient appears (eg: looks anxious or low)

Question 3

what is a hallucination

Answer 3

perception occuring in abscence of an external stimulus (not subject to conscious manipulation)

Question 4

somatic hallucination

Answer 4

bodily sensations: eg: insects crawling under the skin, being touched etc

Question 5

passivity phenomena

Answer 5

behaviour is being controlled by external agency rather than by the individual eg: thought insertion, thought withdrawal, thought broadcasting

Question 6

thought disorder: flight of ideas

Answer 6

words are associated together inappropriately becuase of their meaning or rhyme - so jumps from topic to topic with vague links

Question 7

neologism

Answer 7

abnormality of speech where make up new words or phrases or uses existing words in bizarre ways which have no accepted meaning

Question 8

delusion

Answer 8

false belief/belief held on false grounds - firmly believe even though lack of evidence

Question 9

anhedonia

Answer 9

loss of enjoyment/pleasure

Question 10

anergia

Answer 10

lack of energy

Question 11

amotivation

Answer 11

lack of motivation

Question 12

diurnal variation

Answer 12

mood varies over the day

Question 13

psychomotor retardation

Answer 13

subjective or objective slowing of thoughts and/or movement

Question 14

stupor

Answer 14

absence of relational functions - action and speech

Question 15

what are positive and negative symptoms

Answer 15

positive symptoms = in addition to normal experiences (things that shouldn’t exist eg: hallucinations)

negative symptoms = absence of normal behaviour (highly associated with schizophrenia)