What Is A Mental Status Examination

Although there is a lot of literature providing mental status examination information but still people ask this question that what is a mental status examination. Those who are curious to know about mental health are more eager to gain mental status examination information. However, if you have ever experienced visiting a psychiatrist you might know what a mental status examination is. And if not, then this article will provide you basic and essential mental status examination information to answer this frequently asked question that what is a mental status examination.

Mental status examination (MSE) is basically an evaluative test to measure your mental capacity. It is more likely than a physical examination that a physician does before treating your physical ailment. It is not so much a method of finding out the type of depression you suffer  from like prepartum depression for example. The difference between both examinations is that mental status examination is a test of your mind and mental state whereas physical examinations are to determine your physical ailments.

Mental Status Examination Information

The mental status examination is defined as the assessment of your cognitive behavior, general appearance, speech, memory, insight, thinking patterns and emotional imbalances. It is a basic step of the process of psychological treatment to understand the client history and his mental illness. The time required to take MSE usually depends upon the condition of the client. If the client is mentally healthy and responsive to the questions being asked by the psychologist then it will take ten to fifteen minutes to complete his mental status examination.

On the other hand, if the client has disorganized speech and he is not responsive to the questions then it might take an hour or more than that to take complete mental assessment of that client. The mental status examination is usually based on one-to-one discussion between the client and the psychologist.

Mental Status Examination Effects

When the client first enters the room of the psychologist, he builds rapport with him. Not to forget the process of psychological treatment has already been started once the patient enters the room of psychologists. After building the rapport, the psychologist tries to take the basic information about the client to know him a bit. During this interview session, the psychologist keeps examining the patient’s mental status without interrupting his session.

The mental status examination reasons is often based on different questions related to the behavior and attitude of the client. However, most of these questions are observable and the rest ones can be asked informally. There are very few questions that require proper formal answering which the psychologist tries to cover during his interview sessions.

The mental status examination covers different aspects of human personality including

•    General Appearance (facial expression, dressing, odor, eye contact etc.)
•    Cognition (attention, concentration, focus on discussion, impulsive behavior etc.)
•    Memory (ability to recall things, incidents etc.)
•    Speech (disorganized, yelling, clear, low, repetitive, audible etc.)
•    Mood (aggravate, worried, sad, happy annoyed, etc.)
•    Thinking patterns (clear, violent, irrelevant, suicidal, logical etc.)
•    Insight (ability to understand own problem/illness and its intensity)

All the above-mentioned aspects are being covered in mental status examination. These aspects measures the severity of the mental disorder a person is suffering from.
Therefore, mental status examination is the foremost and basic step of psychiatric practice, which determines the client’s mental capabilities and condition. I really hope that the information given in this article will help you to understand the function and process of mental status examination.