Examination and Disturbance of Thinking — Content (MSE)

1. Overview & Epidemiology

Thought content = what the patient believes and is preoccupied by — as distinct from thought process/form (how thoughts are linked, Topic 29). On the oral exam the examiner will repeatedly test whether you can place a symptom in the right box: e.g. delusion is a disorder of content, not form (cf. PSY - 3.14).

The four content abnormalities you must know cold:

• Delusion — fixed false belief (psychotic).
• Obsession — intrusive, ego-dystonic, resisted thought (non-psychotic; insight preserved).
• Overvalued idea — single dominating belief, intermediate between the two; the patient can be argued out of it.
• **Special preoccupations