is a description of the patient’s

appearance, speech, actions & thoughts

during the interview.
MENTAL
STATUS
EXAMINATION It is a systematic format for recording
finding about , thinking & behavior
patient history remains stable, where
the mental status can change daily or
hours.
 • is an assessment of a
patient’s level of
A MENTAL cognitive (knowledge-
related) ability,
STATUS appearance, emotional
EXAMINATION mood, & speech ,
thought patterns at the
time of evaluation.
 • 1. To check the current status of
client.
PURPOSE OF • 2. To obtain a comprehensive cross
sectional description of the patients
MENTAL mental state.
HEALTH EXAM • 3. To get biographical and historical
information of client.
• 4. To allow us to make a diagnosis 5.
To test the mental capacity.
TECHNIQUES AND ELEMENTSTECHNIQUES
AND ELEMENTS

PSYCHIATRIC NURSING MENTAL STATUS PSYCHOLOGICAL TEST

HISTORY EXAMINATION
MINI MENTAL STATUS
MINI-MENTAL STATE EXAMINATION
INDICATION
 General Behavior

Psychomotor activity

COMPONENTS speech
OF MENTAL thought
STATUS
EXAMINATION Mood

Perception

Cognitive function
IDENTIFICATION
DATA
GENERAL
APPEARANCE
MOTOR
DISTURBANCES
SPEECH
THOUGHT
CONTENT
OF
THOUGHT
MOOD
AFFECT
PERCEPTION
ILLUSION
COGNITIVE
FUNCTION
ATTENTION &
CONCENTRATION
ATTENTION &
CONCENTRATION
MEMORY

TO CHECK THE WHETHER TEST AFTER 5 MINUTES 3-5 UNRELATED OBJECTS RECALL
REGISTRATION, RETENTION, OR
RECOLLECTION OF MATERIAL IS
INVOLVED.
RECENT
Question -What did you had in
breakfast?

Remote memory-

date of birth or age

Number of children

Names & number of family

members

Year of completing education

 ❑Ability to solve problems & make decision
❑ Assessment area
1. Personal – inquire about patient
future plan
2. Social- by observation in social
situations
JUDGEMENT 3. Test- predictions of one’s own
behavior in imaginary situations.
❑ fire problem
❑ Letter problem
 ❑Includes the areas of general
information, comprehension,
arithmetic & vocabulary
❑ Education status- literate/
illiterate
INTELLIGENCE ❑ General knowledge-
1. Name of prime minister
2. river , cities or state
3. Capital of countries
 a) Seasons
b) Crops of fruit in seasons
c) Prices of food grains or food items.
d) Price of land
e) Vocabulary: common objects/
uncommon objects/parts of object

ILLITERATE f) Similarities – pen & pencil

g) Differences-stone-potato -fly –
butterfly -iron - silver
 Questions If 18
boys are divided
into groups of 6,
ARITHMETIC how many
groups will be
there be?
 ❑Questions
a. What will you do when you feel
cold?
b. What will you do if it rains when
you start to work?
COMPREHENSION c. What will you do when you miss
the bus when you are on a
journey?
 • Whether the patient understand
the proverb like as:
• 1. Slow & steady wins the race
• 2. A barking dog never bites.
• 3. As you sow , so shall you reap
PROVERB
 ❑ Knowledge of self
a) Complete denial of illness
b) Slight awareness of being sick
c) Awareness of being sick attribute it to
external/ physical factor
INSIGHT d) Awareness of being sick, but due to
something unknown in himself e)
Intellectual insight
f) True emotional insight
g) Grade 1-6
Physiological factor
❑Bowel & bladder habits
❑Sleep
❑appetite
Psychological factor
❑ Stress
❑Social relation
❑occupation
 oPatient’s generalize mental
health status.
❑ EPISODIC DISTURBANCES
General • Epilepsy
• Hysterical impulsive aggressive
observation • Distructive
❑CONCLUSION
• Conclusion of mental
examination of patient
 ❑Kaplan & sadock, clinical psychiatry, 6th
edition, wollter klwuier, page no. 14-20
❑ Practical guide to mental health nursing ,
Ist edition, jaypee page no. 6-10

BIBLIOGRPHY ❑ Mary. c. townsend, psychiatric mental

health nursing, concepts of care in
evidence –based practice, jaypee, page
no. 962-966
❑ R.sreevani A guide to helath & psychiatric
nursing second edition, jaypee.