Mental Status Examination (MSE)

Sample Case
Gary Sparrow, a 48-year-old white male, was disheveled and unkempt on presentation
to the hospital emergency room. He was wearing dirty khaki pants, an unbuttoned golf shirt, and
white shoes and appeared slightly younger than his stated age. During the interview, he was
agitated and restless, frequently changing seats. He was impatient and sometimes rude in his
interactions with this examiner. Mr. Sparrow reported that today was the best day of his life,
because he had decided to join the professional golf circuit. His affect was labile, but
appropriate to the content of his speech. His speech was loud, pressured, and overelaborative.
He exhibited loosening of associations and flight of ideas; he intermittently and unpredictably
shifted the topic of conversation from golf, to the mating habits of geese, to the likelihood of
extraterrestrial life. Mr. Sparrow described grandiose delusions regarding his sexual and athletic
performance. He reported auditory hallucinations (God had told him to quit his job and become
a professional golfer) and was preoccupied with his athletic and sexual accomplishments. He
was oriented to time and place, but claimed he was the illegitimate son of Jack Nicklaus. He
denied suicidal and homicidal ideation. He refused to participate in intellectual- or memory-
related portions of the examination. Mr. Sparrow was unreliable and exhibited poor judgment.
Insight was absent.

MENTAL STATUS EXAMINATION SAMPLE REPORTS. (2010, August 10). John

Sommers-Flanagan.com. Retrieved February 12, 2024, from
https://johnsommersflanagan.com/2012/08/10/two-sample-mental-status-examination-reports/

Insight:

The MSE is a great tool for accessing someone's mental status - it's like a check-up for
your mind. This standardized method was designed to evaluate a patient's mind for psychiatric
practice. However, not everyone can use this to gather information for personal gain, only
mental health professionals such as psychologists, psychiatrists, or clinical social workers are
allowed to conduct this examination. Generally, mental status examinations (MSEs) can have a
more neurological focus or a more psychiatric focus, depending on the case. The use of MSE is
a very useful approach to identify, diagnose, and also monitor signs and symptoms of mental
illness exhibited by the patient. It's a way for mental health professionals to understand how
you're feeling, thinking, and behaving at a particular moment. They look at things like how you
look and act, how you talk, your mood, what you believe, and how well you understand things.