Mental Health Assessment Template: A Patient With Limited Affect Or No Affect Might Be Described As Blunted Or Flat Respectively

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Caregivers might be able to provide a more complete longitudinal view of the patient’s functioning as well. Concerns that the caregiver has are particularly important in relation to cognitive disorders, that may not be readily apparent to the patient. Including at least a few sentences on the current and historical stressors in the patient’s life that should be contributing to either the presence or the exacerbation of the current illness is also usually important. Provisional diagnoses are common and accepted in the early stages of treatment, Do not hurry to a diagnosis if further investigation, information, or longitudinal assessment is needed. Illicit drugs, prescription medication usage could be examined with pretty straightforward do you ever find yourself using more of a medication than your doctor prescribes or using other people’s prescriptions? Basically the route and amount consumed are important for illicit and prescribed medications. Also, especially those with a positive depression screen, suicidality must also be addressed with all patients. Have you heard of something like that before? Psychomotor retardation or agitation can be screened for by asking Have you or somebody else noticed anything different about how you move? Follow up questions regarding guilt, decreases in energy level, concentration, and appetite are assessed if needed and are important to assess longitudinally.a bit of particular note to include are levels of social support, financial resources, legal problems, and housing.

Axis IV includes psychosocial stressors that contribute to the severity of a patient’s mental illness or its perpetuation. Axis II includes any significant general medical conditions that may relate to the patient’s current presentation. Please see the Medscape Reference pic History and Mental Status Examination for additional information on collecting the mental status examination. Flight of ideas can be approached as a sort of internal distractibility. By the way, a sensitive screen asks the patient if s/he has or has had any special abilities, Grandiosity can vary from just feeling superior to a true psychosis. Just think for a moment. Patients likely do not share an identical view with their physician of what constitutes an illness, as in some of medicine. Questions described below are also appropriate for delving deeper into a patient’s initial complaint.

Experiences that a practitioner would call pathologic should be experienced by the patient as egosyntonic.

It can be moved to the history of present illness when the practitioner is documenting if a significant positive response does occur in the course of the review.

And that’s, they are not recognized as intrinsically different from how the patient will expect to act or feel. Person with bipolar disorder may not, let’s say, feel that the euphoric symptoms of mania represent anything wrong. Patients may not have identical extent of knowledge about family members as they might about themselves, and definitive diagnoses or treatment history can be elusive. So, of note, patients may not clearly recognize mental illness in family members, and a discussion of relevant symptoms in lay language can be more helpful than asking about specific illnesses. ‘indepth’ screen can be necessary to pick up prodromal symptoms or uncommon presentations, frank psychosis isn’t often missed during a psychiatric interview.

Delusions can be difficult to elicit from a patient if ego syntonic and not spontaneously offered.

This will be asked in the most normalizing manner possible.

Asking all patients if they ever see or hear things that other people don’t is appropriate. Terms just like hallucinations or delusions can have either very little or an extremely stigmatized meaning attached to them and may be avoided. Known obsessivecompulsive disorder is often more egodystonic than obsessive compulsive personality disorder, and it is a helpful point to assess for diagnostic accuracy. Cleaning and organization can also be assessed. Furthermore, he can be deemed to have poor insight, Therefore if a patient presents with clear symptoms of a mental illness but rejects the diagnosis.

Did you know that a proxy measurement should be why or how the patient came to see the interviewer.

Insight in this context references the patient’s mental illness and the patient’s awareness of it.

Judgment is narrowly defined as the active demonstration of insight, just like willingness to take medication or accept other treatments. Insight and judgment can be assessed throughout the entirety of the interview. Eventually, all psychiatric assessments should end with the 5 axis diagnoses, that summarize findings in a very brief list format. Seriously. Axis I includes the patient’s psychiatric disorders and can include the provisional diagnosis followed by the diagnoses under consideration, similar to schizophrenia versus schizoaffective disorder versus substance induced psychosis, in this section, So it’s common to refrain from a formal diagnosis and to identify only prominent traits suggested by history and examination, Personality disorders are rarely diagnosed in the first psychiatric interview with a patient. Needless to say, many clinicians defer Axis I, I’d say if no clear traits manifest throughout the course of the interview. Axis I includes personality disorders and mental retardation. Now, a list of possible diagnoses is discussed in brief, with which diagnostic information is missing to finalize a diagnosis, So if a specific diagnosis or specific diagnoses have not yet been reached.

Assessment is a summary of the entire interview, clearly combining history and examination into a differential diagnosis. Pertinent positives and negatives are included to support the listed diagnosis. Details of psychosis are defined as follows. Using the first 5 the interview minutes in this way is of great benefit. Needless to say, record any pics the patient identifies as significant or spends significant time on. More accurate view of the pics that are crossing the patient’s mind can be ascertained by simply letting the patient talk. Lots of sufferers recognize some foreign aspect to the sensory experience and will reply affirmatively to the question Do you ever see or hear things that other people don’t, even if a hallucination may not always be directly evident to a patient. Hallucinations are also included under thought content. Any active thoughts that the patient has about harming himself or herself or others going to be directly investigated and noted in this section if such thoughts are currently present. Hallucinations from all sensory domains will be queried.

Any delusion might be detailed and categorized as bizarre and nonbizarre on the basis of the possibility of it being accurate.

Loose associations similar to I’ve read that driving a car is more dangerous than flying in an airplane.

Associations are a part of the thought process wherein a patient connects meaning to words and sentences. I am sure that the birds outside my window were loud this morning, are often associated with mania. Certainly, very loose associations have connections understood only by the patient. Any physicians involved in the patient’s care, additional information might be obtained from nursing and similar ancillary staff. Now look, a consultation evaluation to a general medical hospital or clinic is usually focused on a specific question.

So a clear description of the issue from the patient’s primary provider is a significant piece of information needed in formulating this question.

Undoubtedly it’s helpful to have additional information from family members to that said, this could start with questions about drug exposures in utero and similar prenatal history but will most often begin with birth. So, a logical place to begin is the patient’s developmental history. Did you hear of something like that before? These questions and early childhood developmental milestones may not be popular to the patient. Patient with limited affect or no affect can be described as blunted or flat. Basically the examination of affect looks at stability and range of displayed emotion across the interview. Actually an affect is compared to the stated mood and congruence noted. Although, the appropriateness of a patient’s emotional appearance to the pics being discussed is also a part of the affective examination. So here is the question. How have these thoughts or feelings affected your life?

Trauma related anxiety can be discussed without stressfully detailing the entire event.

Determine if the patient has ever been involved in an event in which either the patient or other people was facing potential death or serious injury.

Asking Do you often have thoughts, feelings, or dreams about this event, I’d say if this first question has a positive response. Of course, whenever acquiring a list of substances used, more important is the role that these substances play in the patient’s overall life. Did you know that an interviewer must ask for clarification if the patient begins to use terminology that is unfamiliar, use of vernacular should be appropriate for I know that the patient will be given the option to decline answering. Albeit often related. Sexual action are separate. They might be explored equally with questions sensitive to the possibility that men, women, or both are involved, and so it’s a straightforward way of phrasing such queries.

Whenever asking directly about marriage, can unfortunately indicate a bias ward heteronormativity and lead to a patient withholding otherwise pertinent information, despite common. Asking about ‘long term’ relationships can provide a lot more information, instead of using this interview shortcut. Accordingly the adolescent must feel comfortable speaking openly with the interviewer. So an interview involving adolescents isn’t gonna was initiated by the patient and will likely involve interacting with the entire family. From the outset, confidentiality must be discussed with everyone and firm ground rules laid out. With to put the present into context, the patient’s mental state at the time will be looked into.

Therefore if no previous behaviors existed, suicidal or violent thoughts occurred in the past or exist in the present, it can be appropriate to ask What stopped you.

Similar questions going to be asked gonna be examined in detail. Now this includes obtaining a history of suicide attempts and of prior violent acts generally speaking. More than many areas of the interview, so this portion calls for questions that are neither judgmental nor overtly supportive, in order not to burden the patient with the clinician’s emotions in addition to kinds of relationships types might be obtained. Sexual history is a challenging pic for the patient and the interviewer. Known adult relationships are an important sides of the patient’s social history as well. You should take this seriously. It provides a reference during followup visits for the interviewing clinician, and at least parts of it will likely be seen by other medical providers, like the patient’s primary care provider.

Further, the write up will serve as evidence of the patient interaction for billing purposes, and it can be an important source for at least the minimum degree of information required by any involved insurance programs. Documentation of the interview is at least as important as the process of the interview itself. While asking Were you ever physically, sexually, or emotionally abused growing up, given that what a patient views as abuse may differ significantly from what a clinician considers to be abuse. Abuse is a complicated topic. Discuss the relationship of the patient to Did you know that a positive answer to any of these could be examined in detail. It’s also a decent time to inquire about any current abuse, especially in patients with a positive history. According to the setting, legal filings may also be noted here, including any involuntary holds. Social planning further includes goals for the patient’s residence, work, education, or filing for disability, among many others. I know that the social plan details how support networks, including friends and family, among others, gonna be used or shored up. As an example, the length and depth of the interview with an acutely psychotic inpatient varies considerably from that of an outpatient struggling with many years of anxiety, Each interview gonna be unique. Now let me tell you something. Clinician and patient benefit from the improved relationship and diagnostic accuracy that a thorough assessment provides.

Regardless, the essential goals for data collection within a psychiatric interview remain similar, and a consistently applied format is valuable.

All mental illness is biologic, and the separation of mental and physical illness with regards to etiology or legitimacy is a false dichotomy.

Designations of medical and mental illness have practical value only in that they allow a practitioner to subdivide illness for the sake of staying organized. While not structurally different from that obtained in other specialties, a medical history obtained in psychiatry, does have some important focuses. Recording a direct quote from the patient is best. So, more descriptive phrases, just like unable to stop crying for the past 3 days, is more memorable to a reader, despite recording depression is certainly acceptable. Normally, exploring and expanding on the chief symptom is a reliable, patient centered way to build rapport and begin gathering information. Finally, we only know what our patients are thinking on the basis of what they tell us, Speech and thought can be difficult to separate objectively.

Process and content, for the purposes of a mental status examination, speech covers the motor and neurologic facts of producing words, discussed later, will refer to the informational and organizational components.

An assessment of seizures, metabolic disorders, early death and suicide, or violence is also going to be useful.

Severity, including hospitalizations, is also important to determine with regard to family members, as it may provide some information concerning prognosis. However, namely, depression, mania, psychosis, and anxiety in first degree relatives, The family history should cover pics similar to those of the psychiatric review of systems. Of particular importance is the use and effectiveness it’s of particular importance given the lack of clinically relevant lab or imaging studies for many psychiatric diagnoses, that are actually syndromes of historical data and objectively observed symptoms. Then the mental status examination is often and accurately described as the physical examination of psychiatry. Needless to say, eg, the practitioner may address it by asking a question similar to How do you think your feelings are different from those of other people, The emotionally numbing facts of PTSD may require a somewhat subtle approach to elicit.

That’s usually enough to begin a discussion of avoidant or hyperarousal symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder.

a decent follow up question regardless of the answer to the first is Have you ever seen a mental health provider like a psychiatrist, psychologist, or social worker before?

Ask about the past providers, if so. On p of that, what sort of things have these providers done for you? That said, this may vary from something as simple as breathing exercises for anxiety to something as complex as long period of time psychodynamic psychotherapy. For example, the psychological plan includes the nonpharmacologic treatment of psychiatric conditions. Specific learning disabilities may need formal neuropsychiatric testing.

It’s a well-known fact that the collection of information on learning disabilities from the patient and caretaker requires a longitudinal approach that looks for a consistent pattern of difficulty over time and space, as with the entirety of the psychiatric interview, further studies could be guided by the past. Since anything from conduct disorder to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder can have similar end result poor school performance but require dramatically different treatments, a fresh and unique view of the patient may so this sort of question gives the interviewer an opening to more directly discuss the patient’s own experiences with drugs. Do any of your friends use drugs, Drug use can start happening in kids your age. They will be initially broached in reference to peers. Now regarding the aforementioned fact… Pics just like sexual activity and drug use covered during an onetoone interview provide significant opportunities for behavioral counseling but also pose a risk of the patient becoming more withdrawn. They can be best discussed at interviews subsequent to the first meeting, if possible.

However, certain patient presentations make this a challenging task, Obtaining both is ideal.

The course of illness helps to clarify future treatment, I’d say if someone is presenting as a stable outpatient with an unclear diagnosis.

More emphasis should’ve been placed on the current episode, So in case a patient is gonna be addressed before any history is collected, if the patient has any concerns about being seen for a psychiatric assessment. Begin the interview with an assessment of the patient’s understanding as to why a psychiatrist was consulted. Oftentimes sex, spending, and substance use are common and are thus ‘high yield’ areas to explore, increased risk taking can have many forms.

Distractibility can be witnessed by the interviewer, by friends or family, or by the patients themselves.

a lot more is to be gained from a thorough medical history review with a hospitalized, delirious patient, for example.

It’s an interesting fact that the depth of this portion of the interview should be limited by time and goals. Should be thought of as extended social histories, as disordered relationships and past traumas are examined and explored. A well-known fact that is. Strong working relationships are built by patients not merely in their pathology. For amount of crises. Acute stressors can be medication changes or substance use or can be social in nature and are reasonable to ask about if the patient ain’t immediately forthcoming.

Thought content describes what the patient’s focus is in the course of the interview. With the patient having little opportunity or desire for spontaneity and discussing only what the interviewer brings up, in a tightly structured interview with closed ended questions, the content of the patient’s thoughts should be question focused. It’s more appropriate than talking about the patient in problems that may have arisen, after the interview. It is if the answer to What’s the longest term you’ve gone without sleeping but not feeling tired the next day? Inquiring about sleep is amid the easiest ways to pick up a manic episode in the absence of substance abuse. This is the case. Pressured speech gonna be immediately apparent in a person currently in a manic episode and easily recallable by friends or family members. Then the social history occasionally degrades into very straightforward inventory of vices.

With a more holistic view, the social history must provide a longitudinal view of the patient’s life, as do the psychiatric and medical histories.

With a brief assessment of housing and finances, a harried physician may take the time to ask only about sex. Abuse.

To say that this gives an incomplete view of the patient must be an understatement. On p of that, alterations in prosody can suggest affective disorders. Poor articulation of words could point wards substance intoxication. Some commonly used terms to describe speech are defined as follows. Oftentimes rhythm abnormalities should be most pronounced in Tourette syndrome, in which speech can be cluttered with repeated sounds or noises.

Mood and affect are separated in the mental status examination.

The mood is the internal, subjective part of the patient’s emotional state and the affect is the external, objective sides of the patient’s emotional state.

Mood is defined as follows. Plenty of terms are used to try to capture and convey these states. I am sure that the mood is most often obtained by asking the patient, How are you feeling? Thorough examination of mood includes questions regarding how long the patient has felt the way s/he does, how often had been experiencing as opposed to any and any momentary feeling. Notice, use a direct quote from the patient when recording your finding. Now pay attention please. With that said, this format is most appropriate for new patient interviews but can also be of value for existing patients whose psychiatric history has never been fully explored.

Now look, the following text provides an overview of the basic components and key concepts of the psychiatric interview. And so it’s the authors’ intention to also provide additional hints in how to effectively obtain information during that interview. So this section of the examination often begins with a statement on the patient’s amount of alertness and orientation to s/he is. Insight and judgment can be limited by cognitive ability, that is assessed separately. Yes, that’s right! Memory gonna be assessed in the short term, often through recall of number or word sequences, and in the long period of time, possibly through the recalling of important dates in the patient’s life as verified by a family member. Concentration can be assessed through simple arithmetic or by spelling words backwards. It also gives the interpreter some opportunity to educate the interviewer on any crosscultural problems that may impact the interview.

Prior to beginning the interview, it can be helpful to speak separately with the interpreter to discuss any potential concerns or problems that may arise. I’d say in case the interpreter isn’t experienced in mental health and if the patient is already known, it may put the interpreter more at ease if she is informed ahead of time of known symptoms and what specific areas of thought content, language, or disorganization the clinician is interested in. Any sort of transition, like medical illness, a new relationship, a tally new job, or a recent loss, can be a stressor that precipitates or exacerbates a mental illness.

These may contribute to the illness or its severity, Briefly looking at the recent or chronic stresses that the patient might be experiencing is also important.

While helping the patient to relate the stressors in every aspect of a patient’s suffering is important, illnesses may occur spontaneously. Relative or tal absence of speech might be notable and indicate depression or severe psychotic disorders. In mania, rapid or pressured speech might be noted.

Mania may also present with increased ne or volume. Accents provide some information to be further examined in the social history. By the way, a discussion of depression might be followed with one of mania. DIGFAST is a typical mnemonic used in mania screening. Given that manic episodes often do not feel pathologic to a patient, it can be challenging to collect this history. Ok, and now one of the most important parts. That said, this realization, in turn, may allow the interviewer to begin to probe more deeply into the root cause of these symptoms, like depression. Simply raising the question might be enough normalization for the patient to realize that something is wrong. For instance, the interviewer will be vigilant for minimization/dismissal of symptoms as normal aging, these patients may not bring this up as a symptom to their physician, a decline in sexual interest might be viewed by some elderly patients as normal or even expected. Challenges with communication between staff members should’ve been looked for. Significant therapeutic benefit can often be obtained simply by giving the provider a space to discuss if interpersonal conflicts been frequent. May be an explicit part of the treatment plan, interventions can range from hospitalization to more frequent follow up visits.

Basically the diagnostic and treatment considerations that are part gonna be placed on the appropriate location for treatment when doing an emergency assessment.

Whenever noting dose, titration, potential length of treatment, and a description of what risks and benefits were discussed with the patient, any medications must also be described.

Biologic consideration may include needed laboratory tests or imaging that will aid in accurate diagnosis or treatment monitoring. For example, the plan addresses any intervention needed to improve a patient’s symptoms or functioning, and considering the biopsychosocial assessment will should at no time block the patient’s exit from the interview space or be situated in the interview space in this particular way that s/he could easily become trapped, I’d say if the patient ain’t restrained. That’s where it starts getting serious. An important way to begin the interview is with the steps that the patient needs to take to have the restraints removed, if the assaultive person is restrained in any way. On p of that, similarly, the question What are you thinking or feeling during these episodes?

You ever feel the need to count the general amount of certain objects in a room, right?

Attire and overall hygiene are noted next.

Make each attempt to be descriptive and not interpretive to minimize subjectivity. Nonetheless, as an example, punk rock hair is a less objective description than light purple hair styled into ‘2 inch’ spikes. Nevertheless, the mental status examination begins upon first seeing the patient and noting might be pics of further inquiry. Apparent race/ethnicity, age, and gender are usually noted first. Behavior is the active component of the patient’s appearance and is described separately. Bare minimum includes describing any psychomotor agitation or retardation seen in the patient. Any abnormal movements should’ve been noted. Examination and notation of facial movements are important for monitoring tardive dyskinesia. I’m sure it sounds familiar. Compulsive movements, similar to picking at the skin or rearranging items or clothing, can be helpful in a differential.

Did you know that the presence of anxiety suggests many diagnoses to consider.

Open questions similar to what does your body feel like when you are having one of these panic attacks?

Determine what a panic attack means to this particular patient, if the patient identifies panic attacks. Concrete place to start is in the concept of panic. Longitudinal view of illness emphasizes obtaining a history of the course of the illness. Ie, a history of the patient’s present illness episode, Another approach involves looking only at the immediate events preceding the patient’s arrival for treatment. That said, the history of present illness is the most important component of a modern diagnostic interview, yet it’s approached differently determined by how the illness is defined.

Basically the goal is to interpret what the patient is saying as closely as possible but to recognize the difficulty that the interpreter may have in conveying feelings and thoughts that may not easily be communicated in English. Given this difficulty, the patient and provider must limit themselves to no more than 2 3″ sentences at a time before pausing for interpretation. Periods of incarceration and military service must also be detailed. As well as of failure and triumph, periods of disability and function are often remembered depending on their relationships to school and work. Occupational history should ideally follow the patient from and akin opportunities for growth should also be explored. It’s a well specific behaviors are important to note as they can be consequences of psychiatric medications. Extrapyramidal symptom that, these include muscle rigidity may also point to the more serious neuroleptic malignant syndrome. Other sources of support in the patient’s life might be explored in the context of a social history.

You belong to any particular religion, right?

In addition to family and similar communities, so this includes faith or religious tradition.

Using a broader term similar to spirituality or faith tradition gives a patient more flexibility in answering the question without concern for the clinician’s biases. Religious or spiritual history from childhood onward is helpful to establish how a patient’s spiritual worldview developed, if time permits. The patient’s own words, lead the patient onto separate topics, usually in quick succession, flight of ideas is an extreme sort of tangential thought process, in which not only the question posed. Thought blocking and derailment are ‘thought process’ disorders classically seen in schizophrenia. Now let me tell you something. Normal associations are referred to as tight. It’s an interesting fact that the overall thought process gonna be described as tangential, circumstantial, or goal directed. With that said, a description by the interviewer of he gonna be interacting with the patient in the future becomes even more important than in most interviews.

Did you know that an interview with a potentially assaultive person may best be accomplished with multiple interviewers.

Concern for the safety of the interviewer is as valid as I know it’s for that of the patient.

Plenty of patients welcome the chance to get right to the point and seek relief from these distressing thoughts. Asking if she has had serious thoughts of death and dying can start a stepwise approach ward exploring suicidality, if the patient appears overly anxious or withholding. It is information sharing among all other parties will be encouraged, and the patient should’ve been given the option to share himself/herself or to allow the interviewer to summarize findings. So, everyone must understand that outside of the adolescent posing harm to himself/herself or others, the clinician will share information only at the patient’s discretion.

Incarcerated patient being brought in for treatment by the custody staff is less gonna have good judgment than an outpatient who scheduled degree of functioning. Sources for additional information in the majority of the domains and how they can be reached might be described. Of course, the anticipated timing of this next visit can serve as an endpoint for the plan. Actually, any remaining problems or questions that were not fully answered throughout the course of the psychiatric interview should’ve been left in the plan as a reminder for either the interviewer and similar clinicians at the patient’s next visit.