Mental Status Exam Affect Descriptors
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- It is a key part of the initial psychiatric assessment in an outpatient or psychiatric hospital setting. It is a systematic collection of data based on observation of the patient's behavior while the patient is in the clinician's view during the...
- Colorful or bizarre clothing might suggest mania , while unkempt, dirty clothes might suggest schizophrenia or depression. If the patient appears much older than his or her chronological age this can suggest chronic poor self-care or ill-health....
- More global behavioural abnormalities may be noted, such as an increase in arousal and movement described as psychomotor agitation or hyperactivity which might reflect mania or delirium. An inability to sit still might represent akathisia , a side effect of antipsychotic medication. Similarly, a global decrease in arousal and movement described as psychomotor retardation , akinesia or stupor might indicate depression or a medical condition such as Parkinson's disease , dementia or delirium. The examiner would also comment on eye movements repeatedly glancing to one side can suggest that the patient is experiencing hallucinations , and the quality of eye contact which can provide clues to the patient's emotional state. Lack of eye contact may suggest depression or autism. For example, Trzepacz and Baker [24] describe affect as "the external and dynamic manifestations of a person's internal emotional state" and mood as "a person's predominant internal state at any one time", whereas Sims [25] refers to affect as "differentiated specific feelings" and mood as "a more prolonged state or disposition".
- This article will use the Trzepacz and Baker definitions, with mood regarded as a current subjective state as described by the patient, and affect as the examiner's inferences of the quality of the patient's emotional state based on objective observation. Alexithymic individuals may be unable to describe their subjective mood state. An individual who is unable to experience any pleasure may be suffering from anhedonia. Vincent van Gogh 's Self Portrait suggests the artist's mood and affect in the time leading up to his suicide. Affect may be described as appropriate or inappropriate to the current situation, and as congruent or incongruent with their thought content. For example, someone who shows a bland affect when describing a very distressing experience would be described as showing incongruent affect, which might suggest schizophrenia.
- The intensity of the affect may be described as normal, blunted affect , exaggerated , flat, heightened or overly dramatic. A flat or blunted affect is associated with schizophrenia, depression or post-traumatic stress disorder ; heightened affect might suggest mania, and an overly dramatic or exaggerated affect might suggest certain personality disorders. The person may show a full range of affect, in other words a wide range of emotional expression during the assessment, or may be described as having restricted affect. The affect may also be described as reactive, in other words changing flexibly and appropriately with the flow of conversation, or as unreactive. This heading is concerned with the production of speech rather than the content of speech, which is addressed under thought process and thought content see below. When observing the patient's spontaneous speech, the interviewer will note and comment on paralinguistic features such as the loudness, rhythm, prosody , intonation , pitch, phonation , articulation , quantity, rate, spontaneity and latency of speech.
- Many acoustic features have been shown to be significantly altered in mental health disorders. Simple language tests form part of the mini-mental state examination. In practice, the structured assessment of receptive and expressive language is often reported under Cognition see below. People with autism spectrum disorders may have abnormalities in paralinguistic and pragmatic aspects of their speech. Echolalia repetition of another person's words and palilalia repetition of the subject's own words can be heard with patients with autism , schizophrenia or Alzheimer's disease. A person with schizophrenia might use neologisms , which are made-up words which have a specific meaning to the person using them. Speech assessment also contributes to assessment of mood, for example people with mania or anxiety may have rapid, loud and pressured speech ; on the other hand depressed patients will typically have a prolonged speech latency and speak in a slow, quiet and hesitant manner.
- Thought process cannot be directly observed but can only be described by the patient, or inferred from a patient's speech. Form of the thought is captured in this category. A pattern of interruption or disorganization of thought processes is broadly referred to as formal thought disorder , and might be described more specifically as thought blocking, fusion, loosening of associations, tangential thinking, derailment of thought, or knight's move thinking.
Ten Point Guide To Mental State Examination (MSE) In Psychiatry
Thought may be described as circumstantial when a patient includes a great deal of irrelevant detail and makes frequent diversions, but remains focused on the broad topic. Regarding the tempo of thought, some people may experience flight of ideas a manic symptom , when their thoughts are so rapid that their speech seems incoherent, although in flight of ideas a careful observer can discern a chain of poetic, syllabic, rhyming associations in the patient's speech. I love to eat peaches, beach beaches, sand castles fall in the waves, braves are going to the finals, fee fi fo fum. Golden egg. Alternatively an individual may be described as having retarded or inhibited thinking, in which thoughts seem to progress slowly with few associations.- Poverty of thought is a global reduction in the quantity of thought and one of the negative symptoms of schizophrenia. It can also be a feature of severe depression or dementia. A patient with dementia might also experience thought perseveration. Thought perseveration refers to a pattern where a person keeps returning to the same limited set of ideas. Circumstantial thinking might be observed in anxiety disorders or certain kinds of personality disorders. It would describe a patient's suicidal thoughts, depressed cognition, delusions , overvalued ideas, obsessions, phobias and preoccupations.
- One should separate the thought content into pathological thought, versus non-pathological thought. Importantly one should specify suicidal thoughts as either intrusive, unwanted, and not able to translate in the capacity to act on these thoughts mens rea , versus suicidal thoughts that may lead to the act of suicide actus reus. Abnormalities of thought content are established by exploring individuals' thoughts in an open-ended conversational manner with regard to their intensity, salience, the emotions associated with the thoughts, the extent to which the thoughts are experienced as one's own and under one's control, and the degree of belief or conviction associated with the thoughts. For instance an alliance to a particular political party, or sports team would not be considered a delusion in some societies. The patient's delusions may be described within the SEGUE PM mnemonic as somatic, erotomanic delusions, grandiose delusions , unspecified delusions, envious delusions c.
- There are several other forms of delusions, these include descriptions such as: delusions of reference , or delusional misidentification , or delusional memories i. Delusions should be reported as primary coming from no particular source , secondary sourced from another delusion or hallucinations , tertiary sourced from a secondary delusion , or a delusional system a network of associated delusions. Delusional symptoms can be reported as on a continuum from: full symptoms with no insight , partial symptoms where they may start questioning these delusions , nil symptoms where symptoms are resolved , or after complete treatment there are still delusional symptoms or ideas that could develop into delusions you can characterize this as residual symptoms. Delusions can suggest several diseases such as schizophrenia , schizophreniform disorder , a brief psychotic episode , mania , depression with psychotic features, or delusional disorders.
- One can differentiate delusional disorders from schizophrenia for example by the age of onset for delusional disorders being older with a more complete and unaffected personality, where the delusion may only partially impact their life and be fairly encapsulated off from the rest of their formed personality. Whereas schizophrenia typically arises earlier in life with a disintegration of personality and a failure to cope with work, relationships, or education. Other features differentiate diseases with delusions as well. Delusions may be described as mood- congruent the delusional content in keeping with the mood , typical of manic or depressive psychosis , or mood-incongruent delusional content not in keeping with the mood which are more typical of schizophrenia.
- Delusions of control, or passivity experiences in which the individual has the experience of the mind or body being under the influence or control of some kind of external force or agency , are typical of schizophrenia. Examples of this include experiences of thought withdrawal , thought insertion , thought broadcasting , and somatic passivity.
- Schneiderian first rank symptoms are a set of delusions and hallucinations which have been said to be highly suggestive of a diagnosis of schizophrenia. Delusions of guilt, delusions of poverty, and nihilistic delusions belief that one has no mind or is already dead are typical of depressive psychoses. Overvalued Ideas[ edit ] An overvalued idea is an emotionally charged belief that may be held with sufficient conviction to make believer emotionally charged or aggressive but that fails to possess all three characteristics of delusion—most importantly, incongruity with cultural norms. Therefore, any strong, fixed, false, but culturally normative belief can be considered an "overvalued idea". Hypochondriasis is an overvalued idea that one is suffering from an illness, dysmorphophobia that a part of one's body is abnormal, and anorexia nervosa that one is overweight or fat.
- Obsessions[ edit ] An obsession is an "undesired, unpleasant, intrusive thought that cannot be suppressed through the patient's volition", [43] but unlike passivity experiences described above, they are not experienced as imposed from outside the patient's mind. Obsessions are typically intrusive thoughts of violence, injury, dirt or sex, or obsessive ruminations on intellectual themes. A person can also describe obsessional doubt, with intrusive worries about whether they have made the wrong decision, or forgotten to do something, for example turn off the gas or lock the house. In obsessive-compulsive disorder , the individual experiences obsessions with or without compulsions a sense of having to carry out certain ritualized and senseless actions against their wishes. Phobias[ edit ] A phobia is "a dread of an object or situation that does not in reality pose any threat", [44] and is distinct from a delusion in that the patient is aware that the fear is irrational.
- A phobia is usually highly specific to certain situations and will usually be reported by the patient rather than being observed by the clinician in the assessment interview. Preoccupations[ edit ] Preoccupations are thoughts which are not fixed, false or intrusive, but have an undue prominence in the person's mind. Clinically significant preoccupations would include thoughts of suicide , homicidal thoughts, suspicious or fearful beliefs associated with certain personality disorders, depressive beliefs for example that one is unloved or a failure , or the cognitive distortions of anxiety and depression. Suicidal thoughts[ edit ] The MSE contributes to clinical risk assessment by including a thorough exploration of any suicidal or hostile thought content. Assessment of suicide risk includes detailed questioning about the nature of the person's suicidal thoughts, belief about death, reasons for living, and whether the person has made any specific plans to end his or her life.
- The most important questions to ask are: Do you have suicidal feeling now; have you ever attempted suicide highly correlated with future suicide attempts ; do you have plans to commit suicide in the future; and, do you have any deadlines where you may commit suicide i. Numerology calculation, doomsday belief, Mother's Day, Anniversary, Christmas [45] Perceptions[ edit ] A perception in this context is any sensory experience, and the three broad types of perceptual disturbance are hallucinations , pseudohallucinations and illusions. A hallucination is defined as a sensory perception in the absence of any external stimulus, and is experienced in external or objective space i. An illusion is defined as a false sensory perception in the presence of an external stimulus, in other words a distortion of a sensory experience, and may be recognized as such by the subject.
- A pseudohallucination is experienced in internal or subjective space for example as "voices in my head" and is regarded as akin to fantasy. Hallucinations can occur in any of the five senses, although auditory and visual hallucinations are encountered more frequently than tactile touch , olfactory smell or gustatory taste hallucinations. Auditory hallucinations are typical of psychoses : third-person hallucinations i. Visual hallucinations are generally suggestive of organic conditions such as epilepsy , drug intoxication or drug withdrawal. Many of the visual effects of hallucinogenic drugs are more correctly described as visual illusions or visual pseudohallucinations, as they are distortions of sensory experiences, and are not experienced as existing in objective reality. Auditory pseudohallucinations are suggestive of dissociative disorders.
- Unlike other sections of the MSE, use is made of structured tests in addition to unstructured observation. Alertness is a global observation of level of consciousness i.
- Take Free Questions on this Article Continuing Education Activity The mental status examination is the physical examination for psychiatry. It is the defining status of the current state of the patient during evaluation. This activity defines mental status examination, describes the components of a mental status examination, how it can be useful in practice, and highlights how it can enhance diagnosis and treatment in psychiatric practice. Objectives: Identify what a mental status examination is and how it can be used in practice. Describe the components of a mental status examination. Outline an example of mental status examination and how it can be documented. Summarize how a mental status examination can lead to early identification and better management of mental illness to improve patient outcomes.
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