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Mental State Examination: Signs

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The Psychiatric Interview for Differential Diagnosis

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Abstract

Evaluation of the expressive signs is an indispensable part of the psychiatric diagnostic interview. The expressive phenomena are inseparably interwoven with the subjective experiences, and none of the signs can be viewed in isolation from the person and context from which they originate. The patient and his presented complaints congregate in certain patterns, emerging from a conjunction of the symptoms and signs, and unfold as meaningful wholes or Gestalts.

In this chapter, we describe a variety of expressive phenomena paramount for the differential diagnosis, including appearance and behavior, motor disturbances, catatonia, compulsions and pseudocompulsions, extrapyramidal side effects from antipsychotic medication, eye contact and gaze, rapport, mood, affect, speech and language, formal thought disorders, cognition, and self-harm and suicide. In each section, we provide a general description and specify in which disorders these signs are typically seen and outline different manifestations of each category. Throughout the chapter, we provide examples to illustrate the signs.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Mental Health Center Hvidovre, University Hospital of Copenhagen, Broenby, Denmark

    Lennart Jansson

  2. Early Psychosis Intervention Center Region Zealand & Institute for Clinical Medicine, University of Copenhagen, Broenby, Denmark

    Julie Nordgaard

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  1. Lennart Jansson
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  2. Julie Nordgaard
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Jansson, L., Nordgaard, J. (2016). Mental State Examination: Signs. In: The Psychiatric Interview for Differential Diagnosis. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-33249-9_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-33249-9_5

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