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Mental state examination

Mental status examination
Intervention
ICD-9-CM 94.09, 94.11
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The mental status examination or mental state examination (MSE), is an important part of the clinical assessment process in psychiatric practice. It is a structured way of observing and describing a patient's psychological functioning at a given point in time, under the domains of appearance, attitude, behavior, mood and affect, speech, thought process, thought content, perception, cognition, insight and judgment. There are some minor variations in the subdivision of the MSE and the sequence and names of MSE domains.

The purpose of the MSE is to obtain a comprehensive cross-sectional description of the patient's mental state, which, when combined with the biographical and historical information of the psychiatric history, allows the clinician to make an accurate diagnosis and formulation, which are required for coherent treatment planning.

The data are collected through a combination of direct and indirect means: unstructured observation while obtaining the biographical and social information, focused questions about current symptoms, and formalised psychological tests.

The MSE is not to be confused with the Mini–Mental State Examination (MMSE), which is a brief neuro-psychological screening test for dementia.

The MSE derives from an approach to psychiatry known as descriptive psychopathology or descriptive phenomenology which developed from the work of the philosopher and psychiatrist Karl Jaspers. From Jaspers' perspective it was assumed that the only way to comprehend a patient's experience is through his or her own description (through an approach of empathic and non-theoretical enquiry), as distinct from an interpretive or psychoanalytic approach which assumes the analyst might understand experiences or processes of which the patient is unaware, such as defense mechanisms or unconscious drives.


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