Mental Status Examination- Terms Flashcards
(47 cards)
What is the mental status examination?
Gives clinical a snapshot of patient’s emotions thoughts, behaviour at time of observation.
What components are measured under appearance?
- Age, gender, ethnicity
- Physical abnormalities
- Attire
- Hygiene
What components are measured under activity?
- Psychomotor agitation
- Psychomotor retardation
- Catatonia
- Tics
- Akathisia
- Stereotypy
- Tardive Dyskinesia
- Echo praxia
- Dystonia
What is psychomotor agitiation?
Excessive motor & cognitive activity, usually non-productive & in response to inner tension.
What is psychomotor retardation?
Visible slowing of thoughts speech and movements.
What is catatonia?
An immobile position that is maintained, voluntary assumption of inappropriate/bizarre posture or catatonic excitement (agitated purposeless motor activity - unaffected by ext events).
What is tics?
Involuntary spasmodic motor movement.
What is akathisia?
Subjective feeling of muscular tension (side effect of medication) - restlessness, pacing, repeated sitting and standing, can be mistaken for psychomotor agitation.
What is stereotypy?
Repetitive fixed pattern of physical action or speech e.g. hand waving, rocking, head-banging - behaviours often seen in people with autism or intellectual impairment.
What is Tardive Dyskinesia?
The effect of antipsychotics - involuntary, abnormal, irregular movements of muscles of head, limbs & trunk.
What is echo praxis?
Pathological imitation of the movements of one person by another.
What is dystonia?
Slow, sustained contractions of the trunk or limbs (often reaction to medication).
What is mood?
A patient’s description of pervasive and sustained subjective feeling - does not necessarily match affect – might be depressed, euphoric, distressed etc
What is affect?
Examiner’s observation of the client’s current emotional expression.
What is range affect?
Amount of movement between emotions - Expansive (e.g. from tearful to angry), full, blunted (quite severe reduction in display of emotion) or flat (absence of any emotion).
What is appropriateness affect?
Congruent or incongruent (with how the person describes mood).
What is mobility affect?
The Rate of change - i.e. Labile (moves quickly from one emotion to another), normal or constricted
What are components measured under speech?
- Rate
- Amount
- Inflection and volume
- Reciprocal flow
- Articulation
What components are measured under thought processes?
- Goal directed
- Circumstantiality
- Tangentiality
- Loosening of associations
- Flight of ideas
- Word salad
- Clang associations
- Neologisms
- Echolalia
- Blocking
- Magical thinking
What are goal-directed thought processes?
Flow of ideas initiated by problem or task with reality-based conclusion with logical sequence.
What are circumstantiality thought processes?
Delayed in reaching the point (over-inclusive details), but eventually gets to the desired goal.
What are Tangentiality thought processes?
Unable to have goal directed associations of thought - never gets to desired goal of statement.
What are loosening of associations ?
Flow of thought characterised by ideas shifting from 1 subject to another in unrelated way, speech may be incoherent when severe.
What are flight of ideas?
Rapid, continuous verbalisations or plays on words that produce constant shifting from one idea to another - ideas tend to be connected, listener can follow if not severe.
