Mental Status Examination

Abstract

The mental status examination (MSE) is a structured assessment of the clinically relevant areas of a client’s behavioral, emotional, and cognitive functioning. It includes descriptions of the client’s overall appearance, comportment, and behavior; it also describes a client’s thought and perceptual processes and content, emotional state, and cognitive abilities, including level of consciousness, orientation and attention, and insight. By coalescing these important domains, the MSE paints a picture of the client at a given point in time.