Mental State Examination

Question 1

Circumstantiality

Answer 1

Inability to answer a question without giving excessive, unnecessary detail. Person does eventually return to the original point.

Question 2

Tangentiality

Answer 2

Wandering from a topic without ever returning to it

Question 3

Neologisms

Answer 3

new word formations, might involve combining two words.

Question 4

Clang associations

Answer 4

Ideas are related to each other only by the fact that they sound similar pr rhyme

Question 5

word salad

Answer 5

completely incoherent speech where real words are strung together into nonsense sentences

Question 6

Knight’s move thinking

Answer 6

Severe loosening of associations where there are unexpected and illogical leaps from one idea to another. Feature of schizophrenia

Question 7

Flight of ideas

Answer 7

Feature of mania. Leaps from one topic to another but with discernible links between then

Question 8

perseveration

Answer 8

repetition of ideas or words despite an attempt to change the topic

Question 9

Echolalia

Answer 9

Repetition of someone else’s speech, including the question that was asked