Health and Psychology

One of the things I do as a psychologist is to perform mental status examinations.  The most common mental status examination is something called a Folstein Mini-Mental Status Examination.  It consists of several questions that function as screening items to assess orientation and consciousness,  immediate memory, attention and calculations, intermediate or remote memory, mood and affect, intermediate memory recall, speech and thought processes, perceptual disturbances, cognitive skills, abstract thinking, social judgement, insight, reliability, appearance, behavior, speech, motor activity, attitude toward the examiner and attitude toward the examination process.  This allows the examiner to determine if further areas of assessment are required.

One of the differences between a psychiatric mental status examination and a psychological mental status examination is that the questions a psychologist or neuropsychologist uses and the scoring criteria will change based on the perceived level of intellect of the person being evaluated.  I generally have three levels of questions for a mental status examination:  high intellect, average intellect, and low intellect.  Most psychiatrists use an average intellect for the basis of their questions.  What psychologists are trained in is the ability to use psychological tests and measurements to make assessments.  This training allows psychologists to understand what formal tests the screening measures are derived from, and the questions that are at both lower and higher levels that measure the same constructs.

If you need an evaluation, feel free to contact our office.  We can evaluate all age groups.