Mental Health and Psychiatric Nursing Flashcards
7 cards from real Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner Exam practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Mental Health and Psychiatric Nursing flashcards as text
A PMHNP documents that a patient with schizophrenia sits motionless for hours, maintains an unusual posture when repositioned, and does not speak. These symptoms best describe:
Answer: Catatonia
Catatonia is characterized by motor immobility, posturing (waxy flexibility), mutism, and negativism, which can occur in schizophrenia, mood disorders, and medical conditions.
A PMHNP is treating an adolescent with depression and learns the patient disclosed abuse by a family member. The PMHNP's FIRST legal and ethical obligation is to:
Answer: Report the suspected abuse to the appropriate child protective services
As a mandated reporter, the PMHNP must immediately report suspected child abuse to child protective services regardless of the therapeutic relationship or parental consent.
Which pharmacological property of quetiapine at lower doses (25–100 mg) is primarily responsible for its sedating effects used in sleep or anxiety?
Answer: H1 (histamine) receptor antagonism
At low doses, quetiapine's sedating effects are primarily driven by potent H1 histamine receptor antagonism before significant D2 or 5-HT2A blockade occurs.
A PMHNP applying trauma-informed care (TIC) principles encounters a patient who becomes suddenly fearful and dissociates during an assessment. The priority intervention is:
Answer: Gently reorient the patient using grounding techniques and pause the assessment
Trauma-informed care prioritizes safety; grounding techniques help restore present-moment awareness and demonstrate respect for the patient's response to trauma cues.
A patient with major depressive disorder has failed two adequate SSRI trials. The PMHNP considers augmentation. Which agent is FDA-approved as an augmentation strategy for treatment-resistant depression?
Answer: Aripiprazole (Abilify)
Aripiprazole is FDA-approved as an adjunctive therapy to antidepressants for major depressive disorder in patients with an inadequate response.
A PMHNP is evaluating a patient for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in adulthood. Which presentation is MOST characteristic of ASD that may have been missed in childhood?
Answer: Rigid routines, difficulty with social reciprocity, and sensory sensitivities
Core features of ASD include persistent deficits in social communication, restricted/repetitive behaviors, and sensory processing differences that may be 'masked' in high-functioning individuals until adulthood.
A PMHNP is considering prescribing naltrexone for alcohol use disorder. Which condition is an ABSOLUTE contraindication?
Answer: Current physiological opioid dependence or acute opioid use
Naltrexone is an opioid antagonist and will precipitate severe acute opioid withdrawal in patients who are physiologically dependent on opioids, making current opioid dependence an absolute contraindication.