Mental state examination Flashcards
(21 cards)
What is a mental state examination?
An assessment of a person’s current state of mind. Carried out as you take a psychiatric history and includes your observations and answers to specific questions. Should allow someone else to imagine the person from your description.
What are the 7 sections of a mental state examination?
1) Appearance and behaviour
2) Speech
3) Mood and affect
4) Thought form and content
5) Perception
6) Cognition
7) Insight
What is mood and how do you assess it?
Mood is a person’s emotional state overall. Can be subjective (ask the patient) and objective- can be euthymic (normal), elevated/elated, low/depressed or anxious.
What is a person’s affect?
Changes in the persons emotions that observe moment-to-moment during the interview.
Affect: reactive.
Appropriate reaction to the situation or topic being discussed.
Affect: flattened.
Limited emotional reaction.
Affect: blunted.
No observed emotional reactions (specifically associated with psychosis).
Affect: labile.
Excessive emotional fluctuations.
Thought form. What is “flight of ideas”?
Rapid flow of speech, moving from topic to topic with logical connections (eg. mania).
Thought form. What is “loosening of associations/knight’s move thinking”?
Little or no logical connections between thoughts (eg. schizophrenia).
What is a delusion?
A fixed, false belief that is out of keeping with the person’s religious and cultural background (eg. psychosis).
Delusion: persecutory
Perceived threat from others.
Delusion: grandiose
Considerable overestimate of abilities or possession of special powers.
Delusion: nilihistic
Belief that they are dead or do not exist.
Delusion: delusions of reference
Belief that external events/objects are directly related to them (eg. TV programme).
Delusion: thought interference
Insertion, withdrawal or broadcast.
Thought content: over-valued idea
A false belief, not totally fixed but causing great disability (eg. anorexia, hypochondriasis).
Thought content: obsessions
Recurrent, intrusive, distressing ideas, impulses or images that the patient recognises are their own (eg. OCD).
What is a hallucination?
Perception without external stimulus. Can occur in any sensory modality. Auditory often associated with psychosis. Visual, olfactory, gustatory, tactile are more often associated with organic states.
What is an illusion?
False perception of a real stimulus (eg. seeing a person in a shadow).
How do you assess cognition?
Assess alertness, orientation,, attention/concentration, memory. Possibly complete a mini mental state examination (MMSE).
