Elements of Mental Status Examination Samples for Students †MyAssignm

Question: Discuss about the Elements of Mental Status Examination. Answer: Speech: Speech observations are spontaneity, rate, coherence and volume. Unclear speech can result from inaudibility or dysarthria. The kind of speech might give a guide to the associated disorders like people with depression usually speak slowly whilst those having mania might speak quickly. Mood: Mood is the internal, subjective as well as the emotional state of a patient. It might be essential to ask the patient a report of her mood over the last few days rather than asking regarding that moment. However, physicians can conduct an objective assessment by enquiring the patient to rate mood in every visit (Trzepacz, and Baker, 1993). Affect: This is the physicist's objective observation of a patients shown emotional condition. Descriptors of affect might look at the emotional range, intensity, as well as stability. Affect might or might not be congruent with a mood, like when a patient laughs when he/she talks of the recent death of a relative. Thought process: This element is used to describe the patients kind of thinking plus to characterize how the patients concepts are shown in the event of a visit. Here, psychologists can note the rate and flow of thoughts. Other descriptors are if the thoughts are circumstantial, tangential, logical, plus closely connected. However, incoherent of process of reflection is lack of coherent links between thoughts. Thought content: This element describes what a patient is thinking. It includes obsession thinking, homicidal or suicidal ideas as well as the presence/absence of delusions. In case one of these thoughts is present, details concerning the weight plus specificity must be obtained Sensorium: The examination of a persons sensorium entails the patients level plus the ability of consciousness. The fluctuation or disturbance in consciousness might show delirium. However, descriptors of the patient's extent of consciousness are somnolent, alert, comatose, clouded and lethargic Cognition: The elements of a persons cognitive status are attention, concentration, plus memory. Attention plus concentration might be assessed by asking the patient to deduct serial seven from a hundred. Also, a deeper understanding of the brain system as well as memory function has been serving to refine as well as expand the classification of the short plus long-term memory into other memory systems Insight: Insight refers to the patients awareness plus knowledge for his disease as well as the need for treatment. Evaluating ideas is essential especially in making psychiatric diagnosis as well as for accessing adherence to medication. For instance, patients in the maniac stage of bipolar might show little insight, while those with depressive episode might overemphasize issues. Perception: Perceptual disturbances like hallucinations are experienced in agreement with the environment. Hallucinations can occur in given time of stress for the patients. Other examples of perpetual disturbances include feelings of derealization or depersonalization. Motor activity and behavior: Observations of motor activity are facial expressions, the presence of dyskinesias, gestures, general body movement, posture and level of psychomotor activity (Trzepacz and Baker, 1993). Psychomotor retardation might signal negative symptoms of schizophrenia or depression. Appearance: Here, the psychologist describes a patient appearance as well as a real impression as connected by posture, clothing, and grooming. Some of the terms used to describe appearance include, healthy, poised, childlike and bizarre. Judgment: The ability to identify the impacts of actions is accessed throughout the medical status examination through asking what would you do if you came across an envelope on the sidewalk? The patient's compliance with given treatments may also serve as measure of judgment The integral theory is portrayed as the theory of matter, body, soul, and the spirit that puts together different paradigms into a network of interrelated approaches which are enriching. The theory reflects the integration of biology, psychology, theology and mysticology (Clark, 2006). Wilbers theory explores the development of human across 4 quadrants (exterior and interior collective and interior and exterior individual) and through the transpersonal, personal and pre-personal levels of consciousness. Wilber argues that human development should be understood through observable behaviors and also that integrated knowledge should be used to understand human behaviors. According to Clark (2006) the integral theory of consciousness can be of applicable to nurses who want to consider a patient in their care and complex context. Here, nurses can use the theory to access mental states of a patient including appearance and behavior. References Clark, C. S. (2006). An Integral Nursing Education: Exploration of the Wilber Quadrant Model. International Journal for Human Caring, 10(3). Trzepacz, P. T., Baker, R. W. (1993). The psychiatric mental status examination. Oxford University Press.