Mental Health Survey Questions

Mental illness, in its mildest forms, can be common. As many as one out of five school children suffer some effects. Most people with some form of mental illness function in society to varying degrees of normalcy. Mental health survey questions are one of the tools psychiatrists use to assess a patient's condition and monitor it.

Emotional and Physical States

• Mental health survey questions attempt to determine a patient's emotional and physical states as both can produce symptoms of a mental health disorder. The questionnaire attempts to put into perspective how a patient's mood is currently with how it is on a regular basis. For the normal person, prolonged moods are difficult to maintain and so lengthy bouts of any extreme mood is considered unusual, and therefore a symptom. The questionnaire will address problems sleeping, either too much or too little, it will ask for the patient's perspective as to how he views himself and how he believes others to view him. Since physical symptoms can arise, it may ask if the patient suffers from headaches, if the patient is experiencing any digestive disorders, or feels tired or has chest pains. Profuse sweating or unexplained changes in weight can all be symptoms.

Causes and Risk Factors

• Through sessions with a doctor and with the answers provided on the questionnaire, a doctor is able to assess some of the causes and risk factors that underlie a patient's mental health disorder. The exact causes of mental disorders are still largely unknown, but research suggests that biochemical, genetic and environmental factors all play roles. Risk factors include family members with mental health disorders (indicative of a genetic link), stressful life situations, which includes combat (indicative of environmental factors) and having taken psychoactive drugs. Studies also indicate that various brain chemicals (neurotransmitters) out of balance can be a factor as can hormonal imbalances.

Survey Questions

• Mental health survey questions often ask the patient to rate his answer on a scale which is generally some form of Always, Often, Sometimes, Rarely and Very Rarely. The questions attempt to determine how satisfied the patient is with his life, the quality of his sleep, his ability to concentrate on various tasks, how often he feels anxious, whether he feels worthless, how often he thinks of death, whether he has considered suicide, among other areas. The questionnaire will also seek a patient history, asking if the patient has ever before been diagnosed with a mental health disorder and why the patient thinks he may suffer from one.