The human body is one big mystery; even the function of nerves penetrating our body is complicated. So far, technology is not that refine yet to provide sufficient information about the functioning of the nervous system, much more find out errors in physiology. You do not necessarily head to laboratory and imaging examinations to check if you have problems in neurological function, you can be tested without needles at a lesser cost through neurological examination done by a health worker. And these include mental status, cranial nerves, motor system, sensory system, deep tendon reflexes, gait and coordination.
This article, however, is limited on assessment of mental status. The mental status examination tries to gather objective detail about your thoughts, feelings and perceptions. It notes your awareness and responsiveness to the surroundings. It answers such questions as what is your mood; how is your appearance, are you tidy or are the clothes you are wearing match. It would also try to establish if you are oriented to time, place and person and also if you can comprehend. Do you have hallucinations? It also involves memory tests. Different authorities have different categories but what is tackle here are common categories seen in most mental status examination around the world.
Checking for awareness and responsiveness is same as examining consciousness. The conclusion will depend on your response to the question. You may be described as steady, fluctuating or clouded.
Your general emotional is called mood. What the examiner see as your emotional state at the moment is called affect. When you describe as depressing, this alerts examiner for possible assistance for you. Your affected, on the other hand, may be interpreted as blunted (minimal emotional expression noted) or full (evident emotional expression). Also, your affect is checked for appropriateness (like when you relate normally sad event with boisterous laughter).
By appearance it means that the examiner will see if you are tidy or if you are wearing the appropriate clothes for the occasion. Your hair is being watched: is it combed properly as normal human do or it is combed like from entity living in outer space. Assessing appearance are monitoring for any strange mannerisms that you may have.
Questioning for orientation includes asking you what day of the week is it, what time is it now, and check if you are aware you are in the hospital. Health workers will usually orient patients staying for many days in the hospital from time to time. Sometimes having a calendar is helpful for these long-term patients.
Asking about hallucinations is under perception. All your senses and any distortions are examined in this category.
You memory will be tested by allowing you to relate recent and past events. You might be asked about what you ate for lunch or breakfast. You could be asked about your childhood.
These are just general categories being assessed in mental status. Other authors may categorize them differently. Again, goal of examining mental status is to check your thoughts, feelings and perception. Broad categories are consciousness, mood and affect, appearance, orientation, and memory.
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