AIIMS Patna NO - 2020
Mental Health Nursing
Easy
Which of the following is expected in a patient who is diagnosed with an organic mental disorder?
Appeared in: AIIMS Patna NO - 2020
Explanation
- Organic mental disorders (now termed neurocognitive disorders) are caused by a physical illness or injury affecting the brain, leading to cognitive decline.
- A primary manifestation of this cognitive decline is disorganized thought, which includes illogical thinking, tangentiality, and incoherence.
- This symptom is a key diagnostic feature in conditions like delirium and dementia, distinguishing them from many functional psychiatric disorders.
- The search results confirm that disturbances in thinking and impaired cognition, including orientation and memory, are central to these disorders (SRC_4726, SRC_4727).
Why Other Options Were Wrong
- Option A: Memory loss, especially for recent events, is a hallmark symptom of organic mental disorders like dementia and delirium. Intact memory would be an unexpected finding.
- Option B: Impaired judgment, confusion, and perceptual disturbances in organic mental disorders often lead to behavior that is considered inappropriate for the social context.
- Option D: Disorientation to time, place, and person is a classic and fundamental sign of cognitive impairment in organic mental disorders.
Related Visual
Clinical Relevance
- Nursing practice connection: Use the key finding related to Clinical features of Organic Mental Disorders (Neurocognitive Disorders) to guide bedside assessment, documentation, and the next nursing action.
- A nurse's primary role in caring for a patient with an organic mental disorder is to perform regular mental status assessments to track cognitive changes.
- Ensuring patient safety is paramount, as disorganized thought and poor judgment can lead to falls, wandering, or other harmful behaviors.
- Nurses use reorientation techniques (e.g., clocks, calendars, familiar objects) and maintain a structured routine to minimize confusion and anxiety.
How to Approach the Question
- First, identify the core concept in the question stem: 'organic mental disorder'. Recall that this term refers to cognitive decline due to a physical cause.
- Next, think about the defining characteristics of this category of illness. Key features include problems with memory, thinking, and orientation.
- Evaluate each option against this understanding.
- Option A (Intact memory), B (Appropriate behavior), and D (Orientation) all describe normal or healthy cognitive function.
- Option C (Disorganization of thoughts) describes a cognitive deficit, which is consistent with an organic mental disorder.
- Therefore, select the option that represents a pathological finding, not a normal one.
Concept Tested & Keywords
- Concept Tested: Clinical features of Organic Mental Disorders (Neurocognitive Disorders)
- Stem keywords: organic mental disorder, diagnosed, expected
- Lead-in keywords: Which of the following
- Negative lead-in flag: false
Question ID
QU5mIvcVQmsR4AIUAxf2gF
Reference Book
E6 Kaplan Sadock's Synopsis of Psychiatry-2022 (pp 1-3768 of 3768) p. 289-291
E6 Robert Boland, Marcia L. Verduin - Kaplan and Sadock's Comprehensive Text of Psychiatry-Wolters Kluwer Health (2024) (pp 1-16525 of 16525) p. 3295-3297
Practise the full AIIMS Patna NO - 2020
Attempt every question from this paper in a timed mock, then review the full solution for each one.
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