and colleagues discuss hard-to-diagnose cases. A 16-year-old boy was transferred from an outside hospital for evaluation of altered mental status. Earlier in the month, he had begun having feelings of nervousness and anxiety. He reported hearing voices and having visual hallucinations. According to his parents, these symptoms had begun after the patient had been out clubbing with his friends; h...

The mental status examination (MSE) is a component of all medical exams and may be viewed as the psychological equivalent of the physical exam. It is especially important in neurologic and psychiatric evaluations. The purpose is to evaluate, quantitatively and qualitatively, a range of mental functions and behaviors at a specific point in time. The MSE provides important information for diagnos...

OBJECTIVE To determine medical, ophthalmologic, and demographic predictors of cognitive function scores as measured by the Telephone Interview for Cognitive Status (TICS), an adaptation of the Folstein Mini-Mental Status Exam. A secondary objective was to perform an item-by-item analysis of the TICS scores to determine which items correlated most highly with the overall scores. DESIGN Cross-s...

Altered mental status is a common undifferentiated presentation in the emergency department. We describe a case of acetaminophen-induced acute liver failure that was diagnosed and treated prior to obtaining definitive historical or laboratory information about the etiology. The physical exam finding of scleral icterus in this case was a key element to rapid identification and treatment of this ...

BACKGROUND Participation of the mentally-ill in elections promotes integration into the community. In many countries, individuals with compromised mental incompetence who have legal guardians are denied the right to vote. In Israel, mental health consumers are eligible to vote. We evaluated the capacity of psychiatric inpatients with and without legal guardians to understand the nature and effe...

Background The Mini-Mental Status Exam (MMSE) is one of the most commonly used cognitive screening measures for diagnosing impairment in older adults. In present study, we examined whether or not there were baseline differences MMSE scores between cognitively normal individuals who developed Alzheimer’s disease over time (decliners) versus did decline (non-decliners). Method We included 67 part...

PURPOSE Driving is a meaningful occupation which is ascribed to functional independence in schizophrenia. Although it is estimated that individuals with schizophrenia have two times more traffic accidents, little research has been done in this field. Present research explores differences in mental status, visual working memory and visual organization between drivers and non-drivers with schizop...