ABASMATT PCIR – Mental State Examination

Mental State Examination (MSE)

  1. Appearance:
    • Dress, grooming, posture, and any unusual physical characteristics.
  2. Behaviour:
    • Eye contact, psychomotor agitation or retardation, any abnormal movements or gestures.
  3. Attitude Toward the Examiner:
    • Cooperative, hostile, evasive, etc.
  4. Speech:
    • Rate, volume, quantity of information, quality (e.g., monotonous, pressured).
  5. Mood:
    • The patient’s pervasive and sustained emotional state (e.g., “How have you been feeling?”)
  6. Affect:
    • The emotional expression observed by the clinician (e.g., flat, labile, congruent or incongruent with mood).
  7. Thought Process:
    • How thoughts are organized and expressed (e.g., linear, circumstantial, tangential, loose associations).
  8. Thought Content:
    • What the patient is thinking about (e.g., delusions, hallucinations, suicidal or homicidal ideations).
  9. Perception:
    • Any misperceptions, such as hallucinations.
  10. Cognition:
    1. Orientation to time, place, person
    2. Attention, concentration
    3. Memory (immediate, short-term, long-term)
    4. General knowledge, abstract thinking, and intelligence level
  11. Insight and Judgment:
    1. Insight: Awareness and understanding of one’s own condition.
    2. Judgment: Ability to predict the consequences of one’s actions and make decisions.
  12. Risk Assessment:
    • Evaluation of risk for harm to self or others, including any suicidal or homicidal ideations, plans, and means.

The information collected during the mental health history and MSE provides a comprehensive picture of the patient’s current mental health status and guides diagnosis and treatment planning. It’s essential to approach these assessments with empathy, cultural sensitivity, and without judgment to establish rapport and trust with the patient.