mental status terminology

Question 1

consciousness

Answer 1

the state of wakefulness, awareness, or alertness in which most human beings function while not asleep or one of the recognized stages of normal sleep from which the person can be readily awakened

Question 2

alert

Answer 2

pt aware of the examiner and can respond to the environment around them independently

Question 3

depersonalization

Answer 3

when you persistently or repeatedly have the feeling that you’re observing yourself from outside your body or you have a sense that things around you aren’t real, or both

Question 4

mental status

Answer 4

comprehensive description or statement of a patient’s intellectual capacity, emotional state, and general mental health based on examiner’s observations and directed interview; includes assessment of mood, behavior, orientation, judgment, memory, problem-solving ability, and contact with reality

Question 5

orientation

Answer 5

person’s awareness of self, place, time, and situation

Question 6

lethargic

Answer 6

condition marked by drowsiness and a lack of energy and mental alertness

Question 7

ambivalence

Answer 7

the presence of simultaneous, strong positive or negative attitudes toward a participant, object or situation (entity)

Question 8

attention span

Answer 8

how long you can focus on something or spend on a task before you need a break or get distracted

Question 9

attention

Answer 9

the ability to focus selectively on a selected stimulus, sustaining that focus and shifting it at will

Question 10

stuporous

Answer 10

an excessively deep state of unresponsiveness

Question 11

lability

Answer 11

rapid, often exaggerated changes in mood, where strong emotions or feelings (uncontrollable laughing or crying, or heightened irritability or temper) occur

Question 12

recent memory

Answer 12

“short-term” memory; a system for temporarily storing and managing the information required to carry out complex cognitive tasks such as learning, reasoning, and comprehension

Question 13

memory

Answer 13

the ability to recover information about past events or knowledge

Question 14

comatose

Answer 14

in a state of deep and usually prolonged unconsciousness; unable to respond to external stimuli

Question 15

rage

Answer 15

state of violent anger

Question 16

remote memory

Answer 16

the ability to recall events from the distant past

Question 17

mood

Answer 17

A pervasive and sustained emotion which can markedly colour one’s perception of the world

Question 18

delirium/delirious

Answer 18

a mental state in which a person is confused and has reduced awareness of their surroundings

Question 19

dementia

Answer 19

the loss of cognitive functioning — thinking, remembering, and reasoning — to such an extent that it interferes with a person’s daily life and activities

Question 20

affect

Answer 20

the patient’s immediate expression of emotion

Question 21

glasgow coma scale

Answer 21

used to objectively describe the extent of impaired consciousness in all types of acute medical and trauma patients. the scale assesses patients according to three aspects of responsiveness: eye-opening, motor, and verbal responses

Question 22

suicidal ideation

Answer 22

a range of contemplations, wishes, and preoccupations with death and suicide

Question 23

anxiety

Answer 23

feelings of fear, dread, and uneasiness that may occur as a reaction to stress

Question 24

thought process

Answer 24

the logical connections between thoughts and their relevance to the main thread of conversation

Question 25

decorticate

Answer 25

an abnormal posturing in which a person is stiff with bent arms, clenched fists, and legs held out straight. the arms are bent in toward the body and the wrists and fingers are bent and held on the chest

Question 26

depression

Answer 26

a mood disorder that causes a persistent feeling of sadness and loss of interest

Question 27

word salad

Answer 27

"schizophasia"; "confused or unintelligible mixture of seemingly random words and phrases"

Question 28

thought content

Answer 28

describes what the patient is thinking and includes the presence or absence of delusional or obsessional thinking and suicidal or homicidal ideas

Question 29

decerebrate

Answer 29

an abnormal body posture that involves the arms and legs being held straight out, the toes being pointed downward, and the head and neck being arched backward

Question 30

obsession

Answer 30

repeated thoughts, urges, or mental images that cause anxiety

Question 31

circumstantiality

Answer 31

circuitous and non-direct thinking or speech that digresses from the main point of a conversation

Question 32

perception

Answer 32

Awareness of objects; consciousness

Question 33

aphasia

Answer 33

a brain disorder where a person has trouble speaking or understanding other people speaking

Question 34

compulsion

Answer 34

an uncontrollable urge to say or do something without an obvious reason

Question 35

echolalia

Answer 35

a psychiatric disorder that makes someone meaninglessly repeat what another person says

Question 36

abstract reasoning

Answer 36

the ability to calculate, sort, categorize, conceptualize, draw conclusions, or interpret and condense complex ideas

Question 37

elation

Answer 37

a state of heightened joy, exaggerated optimism, and restless excitement

Question 38

flight of ideas

Answer 38

occurs when someone talks quickly and erratically, jumping rapidly between ideas and thoughts

Question 39

phobia

Answer 39

an extreme, irrational, fear of something that may cause a person to panic

Question 40

delusion

Answer 40

a false belief that persists despite evidence proving it false and occurs especially in some mentally disturbed states

Question 41

lucid

Answer 41

thinking clearly again after a period of illness or confusion

Question 42

coherent

Answer 42

consistent; making a logical whole

Question 43

deliberate

Answer 43

to think about or discuss issues and decisions carefully

Question 44

vague

Answer 44

a lack of clear formulation due to inadequate conception or consideration

Question 45

digresses

Answer 45

to turn aside especially from the main subject of attention or course of argument

Question 46

confused

Answer 46

the inability to think as clearly or quickly as you normally d

Question 47

disorganized

Answer 47

psychopathological inconsistency in personality, mental functions, or overt behavior

Question 48

language

Answer 48

the use of a meaningful pattern of vocal sounds (or corresponding written symbols) to convey thoughts and feelings

Question 49

blocking

Answer 49

interruption of a trend of associative thought by the arousal of an opposing trend or through the welling up into consciousness of a complex of unpleasant ideas

Question 50

confabulation

Answer 50

a neuropsychiatric disorder wherein a patient generates a false memory without the intention of deceit

Question 51

neologism

Answer 51

a new word that is coined especially by a person affected with schizophrenia, is meaningless except to the coiner, and is typically a combination of two existing words or a shortening or distortion of an existing word

Question 52

circumlocution

Answer 52

the use of an unnecessarily large number of words to express an idea

Question 53

perseveration

Answer 53

the continual involuntary repetition of a thought or behavior

Question 54

clanging

Answer 54

behavior that is situationally inappropriate

Question 55

hallucination

Answer 55

a false perception of objects or events involving your senses: sight, sound, smell, touch and taste

Question 56

illusion

Answer 56

a perception that occurs when a sensory stimulus is present but is incorrectly perceived and misinterpreted, such as hearing the wind as someone crying