● Mental status: a person’s emotional and cognitive function
● Most grieving people have those feelings for 2 to 6 months
● A mental disorder is apparent when a person’s response is much greater than the
expected reaction to a traumatic life event
○ Organic disorders: cause by brain disease of a known specific cause such a
alcohol and drug intoxication/withdrawal, dementia, delirium
○ Psychiatric mental disorders: an organic etiology has not yet been established
such as anxiety disorders or schizophrenia
● Mental status is inferred through assessment
○ Consciousness: being aware of own existence, feelings, thoughts, etc.
○ Language: using the voice to communicate thoughts and feelings
○ Mood/affect: Affect is a temporary expression of feelings and mood is a
prolonged display of feelings that color the whole emotional life
○ Orientation: awareness of the objective world in relation to self - able to name
person, place, time
○ Attention: power of concentration
○ Memory: ability to lay down and store experiences and perceptions for later recall
■ Recent vs. remote (remote: brings up years’ worth of experiences)
○ Abstract reasoning: deeper meaning beyond the concrete/literal
○ Thought process: the way a person thinks
○ Thought content: what the person thinks
○ Perceptions: awareness of objects through the 5 senses
● Alert and oriented times 3
○ Person: name?
○ Place: where you are
○ Time: date
● CDC estimates that 13 to 20% of children living in the U.S. experience a mental disorder
in a given year
● In an aging adult, response time is slower not because of declining intelligence but
because it takes longer to react to information
● Recent memory is more affected in aging adults than remote
● 4 main headings of mental status assessment:
○ Appearance, behavior, cognition, and thought processes (A, B, C, T)
● Obtunded = confused
● Dysphonia = abnormal volume
● Dysarthria = distorted speech
● Aphasia = loss of ability to speak or write or to understand speech or writing
● The mini-mental state examination (MMSE) is a simplified, scored form of the cognitive
functions of the mental status examination (memory, orientation to time and place,
naming, reading, copying or visuospatial orientation, writing, and the ability to follow a
three stage command)
○ Quick and easy
○ 11 questions
○ 5-10 minutes to administer
● Most grieving people have those feelings for 2 to 6 months
● A mental disorder is apparent when a person’s response is much greater than the
expected reaction to a traumatic life event
○ Organic disorders: cause by brain disease of a known specific cause such a
alcohol and drug intoxication/withdrawal, dementia, delirium
○ Psychiatric mental disorders: an organic etiology has not yet been established
such as anxiety disorders or schizophrenia
● Mental status is inferred through assessment
○ Consciousness: being aware of own existence, feelings, thoughts, etc.
○ Language: using the voice to communicate thoughts and feelings
○ Mood/affect: Affect is a temporary expression of feelings and mood is a
prolonged display of feelings that color the whole emotional life
○ Orientation: awareness of the objective world in relation to self - able to name
person, place, time
○ Attention: power of concentration
○ Memory: ability to lay down and store experiences and perceptions for later recall
■ Recent vs. remote (remote: brings up years’ worth of experiences)
○ Abstract reasoning: deeper meaning beyond the concrete/literal
○ Thought process: the way a person thinks
○ Thought content: what the person thinks
○ Perceptions: awareness of objects through the 5 senses
● Alert and oriented times 3
○ Person: name?
○ Place: where you are
○ Time: date
● CDC estimates that 13 to 20% of children living in the U.S. experience a mental disorder
in a given year
● In an aging adult, response time is slower not because of declining intelligence but
because it takes longer to react to information
● Recent memory is more affected in aging adults than remote
● 4 main headings of mental status assessment:
○ Appearance, behavior, cognition, and thought processes (A, B, C, T)
● Obtunded = confused
● Dysphonia = abnormal volume
● Dysarthria = distorted speech
● Aphasia = loss of ability to speak or write or to understand speech or writing
● The mini-mental state examination (MMSE) is a simplified, scored form of the cognitive
functions of the mental status examination (memory, orientation to time and place,
naming, reading, copying or visuospatial orientation, writing, and the ability to follow a
three stage command)
○ Quick and easy
○ 11 questions
○ 5-10 minutes to administer
