MENTAL STATUS Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

MENTAL STATUS - Essay Example The MSE is a systematic collection of data gathered from a patient while the patient is in full view of the psychiatrist in order to detect signs and symptoms of a mental disorder. It is structured like an interview or an informal inquiry to put the patient at ease in order to be able to obtain good answers to both closed and open-ended questions. It can be supplemented with a structured written test to further test the patients mental capacity and cognition. All the data that can be gathered will be recorded under specific headings known as standard domains. In psychiatry, domains are the specific classifications of a mental state characterized by the following factors which clinicians use to analyze a mental patient: appearance, attitude, mood & affect, thought process, thought content, perception, cognition, insight and judgment. All these domains are observed in the patient to fully determine the mental status. The other domains include behavior or activity, speech and language (Gehlert & Browne, 2006, p. 215). The MSE tries to elicit a patients perspective and also incorporates the observations made by the clinician. Domains indicate a specific mental function (Frankel & Myatt, 2003, p. 28). Awareness of a mental patients cultural background can help to establish rapport and trust right at the outset of the interview process. This is because cultural factors can influence the outcome and results of the data-gathering exercise so it is important clinicians know about a patients specific culture. For example, some cultures can emphasize the avoidance of any eye contact for prolonged periods of time which may be misinterpreted by the psychiatrist if he is not aware of a patients cultural background (Hersen & Turner, 2003, p. 22). A patients culture may also consider avoiding eye contact as a sign of deference to a higher authority and so people got accustomed to not looking a person straight in the eye which in