A patient describes a vague, unsettling sense that something is going on. Before revealing the answer, decide how you would explore whether this is delusional mood.

Ask the patient to describe the feeling as precisely as possible, and note whether it carries a specific quality of personal significance about unfolding events, rather than simply generalised worry, since this personal significance is central to the concept. Ask whether they can identify any specific content to the feeling, since delusional mood is defined precisely by the absence of any crystallised content of its own. Ask about accompanying anxiety, perplexity, or unease, since these often accompany it, and ask whether the feeling has, or later does, resolve into a more specific belief or a delusional perception, since this is often the natural course of the experience and recognising it early is clinically useful, as it is frequently the earliest identifiable feature in a developing episode of primary delusional experience.