Abstract
The mental status examination (MSE) is an interview screening evaluation of all the important areas of a patient’s emotional and cognitive functioning, often augmented with some simple cognitive tests. The MSE provides the data for formulating a psychiatric diagnosis or developing a working hypothesis regarding psychiatric diagnosis. The MSE is to psychiatric diagnosis what the physical examination is to medical diagnosis (Andreasen & Black, 1987; Hales, Talbott, & Yudofsky, 1994; Trzepacz & Baker, 1993). The MSE also can be used as a basis for developing diagnosis of neurobehavioral disorders due to neurological damage, but this chapter will focus on the psychiatric application of the MSE. Interested readers are referred to Strub and Black’s (2000) seminal work on use of the MSE for a neurologically oriented diagnosis.
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Daniel, M.S., Crider, C.J. (2003). Mental Status Examination. In: Hersen, M., Turner, S.M. (eds) Diagnostic Interviewing. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-4963-2_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-4963-2_2
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