Mental Status Examination

Jacob Taylor, M.D., Margaret S. Chisolm, M.D.
Mental Status Examination is a topic covered in the Johns Hopkins Psychiatry Guide.

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DEFINITION

  • The mental status examination (MSE) provides a cross-sectional description of the patient’s mental life at the time of the exam.
  • The MSE involves both objective observation of the patient and eliciting the patient’s subjective experience.
  • Different templates for the MSE exist, but most follow a format similar to that described below (see [1], [2] and [3]).

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DEFINITION

  • The mental status examination (MSE) provides a cross-sectional description of the patient’s mental life at the time of the exam.
  • The MSE involves both objective observation of the patient and eliciting the patient’s subjective experience.
  • Different templates for the MSE exist, but most follow a format similar to that described below (see [1], [2] and [3]).

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Last updated: January 8, 2022