- Information
- AI Chat
Was this document helpful?
The Mental Status Examination example
Course: Psychiatric Nursing And Mental Health Nursing Care (NURS 40030)
85 Documents
Students shared 85 documents in this course
University: Kent State University
Was this document helpful?
The Mental Status Examination (MSE) is a standardized procedure used to
evaluate the client’s mental and emotional functioning at the time the client is seen by the mental health
professional. It involves a precise series of observations as well as some specific questions.
Each of the topics listed below is included in the MSE because it provides valuable information about the
client’s function. A completed MSE analysis is usually only a short paragraph of condensed information,
yet it contributes greatly to the diagnostic picture.
The items included in the MSE are:
Appearance, behavior, and attitude
Characteristics of speech
Affect and mood
Thought content, thought form, and concentration
Orientation
Memory
General intellectual level
Insight and judgement
APPEARANCE, BEHAVIOR, AND ATTITUDE
An MSE usually begins by describing the person’s age, marital status, race, and manner of dress.
Appearance is important because a person suffering from serious mental impairment may lose interest in
grooming and personal hygiene or may be unable to perform these normal functions.
Psychomotor behavior is described to give some further indication about a person’s ability to maintain
normal control. Agitated, restless behaviors suggest one clinical picture whereas frozen posture with a
lack of eye contact suggests an entirely different clinical situation. The skilled clinician uses subtle cues
such as eye contact or avoidance to aid in diagnosis.
This can be followed with a description of the client’s attitude, cooperation, and ability to provide reliable
information. Assessment of attitude provides an indication of the client’s motivation for treatment. An
example of this element follows:
This 35-year-old divorced, Caucasian male was casually dressed in a T-shirt, jeans and tennis shoes. He
was pacing throughout the interview, although he was very cooperative. He was judged to be a reliable
historian.
CHARACTERISTICS OF SPEECH
The quality and quantity of the client’s speech provide information about thought processes. Quality refers
to relevance, appropriateness to topic, coherence, clarity, and voice volume. Quantity describes the
amount and rate of speech, and any sense of pressure. Typically, the following items are identified, if
present:
Mutism, or no verbal response
Circumstantiality, or excessively irrelevant detail
Perseveration, or the repetition of the same words or phrases
Flight of ideas or rapid, loose association of content, including: