PROVERB FAMILIARITY AND THE MENTAL STATUS EXAMINATION

Asking patients to interpret proverbs is a traditional method of asses sing abstract thinking ability. Familiarity with a proverb increases t he likelihood of interpreting it correctly. Differences in proverb fam iliarity among patients could lead clinicians to incorrectly conclude that a patient is thinking concretely, and thus to underestimate the p atient's cognitive ability. Clinicians should be aware of this possibi lity when assessing patients from different racial and gender groups. The authors surveyed 229 Afro-American and 104 Caucasian high school s tudents to determine their familiarity with 25 proverbs. Thirty-seven clinicians were also asked to rate their patients' familiarity with th e same proverbs. The authors found no differences in proverb familiari ty between the black and white students or the male and female student s. Clinicians' beliefs about proverb familiarity in their patients wer e found to be inaccurate.