20th November 2023

Mood and Affect

Emotions are feelings which we all experience. For example, you might be feeling low about having to stay in and revise for this exam when you should be out enjoying a nice meal. In clinical psychiatry, we often refer to the emotions that our patients are experiencing in terms of mood and affect. Mood-related symptoms are present in many psychiatric disorders. They are particularly prominent (as the name would suggest) in mood disorders.

But what is mood? And what is affect?

Affect is often described as ‘The patient’s immediate expression of emotion’, and mood is a ‘more sustained emotional make up of the patient’s personality.’ These definitions did not help me much, and I benefited from a useful metaphor to help me understand: the weather.

If you were to ask the question, ‘How is the weather in England?’ You could give two responses. You might say ‘the weather in England is generally dull and rainy’, this is giving information on what the weather is like over a sustained period, like a mood. You could also look outside and say, ‘It’s currently very sunny,’ giving the answer of what the weather is like at the time you’re observing it, like an affect.

So, a patient’s mood will be their emotions over a larger period of time and affect is the observed emotion in the assessment room with them.

References

• Martin DC. The Mental Status Examination. In: Walker HK, Hall WD, Hurst JW, editors. Clinical Methods: The History, Physical, and Laboratory Examinations. 3rd edition. Boston: Butterworths; 1990. Chapter 207.