Question

A mental health nurse is caring for a client with schizophrenia. The nurse observes the client laughing about the recent death of the client's father. The nurse would correctly document this mood as what?

Answer 1

A mental health nurse would correctly document the client with schizophrenia who is laughing about the recent death of the client's father as exhibiting 'inappropriate affect', which signifies an incongruent emotional expression to the context.

Step-by-step explanation:

The behavior of the client with schizophrenia laughing at the recent death of a parent would be accurately documented by a mental health nurse as inappropriate affect. This term describes a significant discrepancy between the individual's emotional expression and the content or context of their conversation or situation. In the case of the client laughing after a tragic event, this mismatch makes 'inappropriate affect' the correct clinical term for this observation.

It is important to note that inappropriate affect is one of many possible symptoms of schizophrenia, where patients may show emotions that are not fitting for the context, or may have a diminished emotional response (blunted affect).