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Mood and Affect

This section records the how the mood appears to you (affect) and how the patient reports their emotions as being (mood). Any changes in the affect during the interview should also be noted.

Try to build up a picture of how the mood has affected the patients life (e.g. activities, concentration...) You should screen for affective disorders as part of any psychiatric history.

 

Example. Mr. Rothberg
.
'Mr. Rothberg looked and felt "...miserable" He no longer enjoys any of his hobbies (aeroplane spotting and bird watching) and has found himself getting “drained very quickly” even attending the clinic today had made him feel "shattered" He finds it hard to motivate himself to carry out even simple meal preparation or personal hygiene.

He lost 2 stone in the last month, his trousers looked baggy around the waist. He reports appetite as “erratic” and libido as “non existent”

He no longer socialises at all, instead whiles away his days in front of the TV although he “can't be bothered to concentrate on that rubbish” “...its just on to cut through the loneliness”
He used to enjoy a drink down the social club most evenings and lunch with friends several times a week, that has stopped now' he goes to bed early usually waking in the early hours feeling awful.'
.
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- Miserable
- Anhedonia
- Fatigability
- Amotivation
- Weight loss (1st./m)
- Self neglect
- Appetite, libido
- Early morning waking
- Social isolation

 

Descriptive Word List [psychiatric dictionary]
Mood
Agitated
Alexithymic
Ambivalence
Angry
Anhedonic
Anxious
Appropriate
Blunted
Depressed
Dysphoric
Ecstatic
Elevated
Euphoric
Euthymic
Expansive
Fearful
Flat
Grieving
Gleeful
Inappropriate
Irritable
Labile
Lowered
Panicked
Restricted
Tense
...
 
 

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