RevisePsych

Mood Disorder

• Current mood

 

• Onset of mood change

- If sustained - “How has your mood varied recently?”

- Sustained low but period of lowering, including being lower in the morning

- What was happening? (Stressors - in terms of events seen as loss, entrapment or humiliation)

- Duration of lowering of mood

- Any highs? - mood elevation, onset, duration, irritability, changes in behaviour- spending/more friendly, subjective racing of thoughts

 

• Sleep 

- decreased, excessive, early morning wakening

 

• Appetite/ weight loss

- “Are your clothes any looser, do you skip meals?”

 

• Memory or concentration

- “Do you forget minor things, can you follow the television or read books?”

 

• Libido

- “Have you found yourself less interested in sex?”

 

• Enjoyment

- "Are you looking forward to anything, is there anything you used to like to do?”

 

• Energy

- “Do you feel more tired/leave the house/get out of bed?”

 

• Negative thoughts - Hopelessness

- “What do you think about yourself/the world-others/the future?

- “Do you think things may get better?”

 

• Suicide

- “When some people are low in mood they have thoughts that life is not worth living, have you experienced anything like that?”

- “Have you had any thought of what you might do?”

- “What stopped you from doing it?”

 

• Psychotic symptoms

- “Do you ever have any experiences which were distressing and seemed unusual to you?”

- “Do you ever have any thoughts that upset you?”

- Full assessment of psychotic symptoms.