4. Clinical Assessment: Methods and purpose Flashcards
what are methods of clinical assessment?
- Clinical interview
- Personality Assessments
- Questionnaires
- Corroborative reports
- Self-report
- Self-monitoring forms
- Observation
- Measuring Process and Outcome of therapy
what are the purposes of clinical interviews?
- Mental Status Examination
- Diagnosis
- Risk assessment
- Formulation
- Understand client’s goals for assessment or therapy
- Understand process issues that might guide the course of therapy
- Demographics
- evidence based
what is mental status examination in clinical interviews?
o doesn’t give you a diagnosis
o just gives to a pathology
what is diagnosis in clinical interviews?
does not give you full information, so you wouldn’t base the therapy entirely on the diagnosis. But is very important and informative in guiding a treatment plan
what is risk assessment in clinical interviews?
risk to self-harm, suicide and to others
what is formulation in clinical interviews?
case conceptualisation or explanation of what psychological processes a person has had
what are demographics in clinical interviewing?
age, level of education
what links into treatment plans?
diagnosis, formulation, risk assessment, demographics, evidence based
what are the three phases of a semi-structured clinical interview?
opening, middle, end
what is involved in the opening of a semi-structured clinical interview?
o warm up and rapport building
o assess the suffering, empathise
what is involved in the middle of a semi-structured clinical interview?
history, mental status, assessment, determine client’s level of insight
what is involved in the end of a semi-structured clinical interview?
o summarise conclusions
o focus on goals and hope for future
what are the areas covered by a clinical interview?
- Ask about presenting problem (what brings them in today)
- Explore current psychological functioning and symptom formation (identify diagnoses and differential diagnoses)
- Mental Status Examination throughout interview
- Risk assessment
- Personal history, including critical developmental incidents, as well as family, educational, medical, psychiatric and social histories – looking for psychological mechanisms as well as events
- Current social systems
- Strengths, competencies and abilities
- Client’s goals for assessment or therapy
what is involved in Mental status examination?
A structured summary of your own observation of the client
what are aspects that you should observe in mental status examination?
o Appearance o Behaviour o Thought Form o Thought Content o Perception o Affect\Mood o Orientation o Judgement o Insight o Intelligence
what do you observe when observing appearance and behaviour?
• Dress • Self-care • Eye contact • Motor activity o Agitation o Retardation • Movements
what do you observe when observing mood and affect and behaviour?
Cues: behaviour, appearance, facial expression, expression, presentation
what do you observe when observing thought and behaviour?
content and form
what do you observe when observing perception and behaviour?
• Sensory distortions and illusions • Hallucinations: o hearing o vision (implications) o smell, taste and touch • Other abnormal perceptions • Depersonalisation and derealisation
what do you observe when observing cognition and behaviour?
- Orientation to time, place and person
- Attention and concentration
- Capacity for abstraction and reasoning
- Current functioning in relation to previous functioning
- Tools – MMSE, proverbs, serial 7s
what do you observe when observing insight and behaviour?
• Understanding and Attitudes:
o towards the problem
o towards the consequences and limitations imposed by the problem/disorder
o towards any help offered
what does affect refer to in MSE?
• Affect refers to characteristics communicated during the interview – the interpersonal dimension in the here and now.
what observing thought and behaviour what does the content aspect observe?
o Unusual content
o Overvalued ideas
o Delusions
what observing thought and behaviour what does the form aspect observe?
o Rate, responsivity and spontaneity o Coherence – use of standard grammatical forms and sentence structure o Capacity to sustain train of thought o Circumstantiality o Tangentiality o Flight of ideas o Thought block o Word salad o Unusual word usage – neologisms
when assessing attention and concentration when observing cognitions is MSE what are you looking for?
o distraction due to intrusive thoughts
o impaired reasoning
o impaired concentration
• Memory and whether a good historian
when assessing attention and concentration when observing cognitions is MSE what are you looking for?
o distraction due to intrusive thoughts
o impaired reasoning
o impaired concentration
• Memory and whether a good historian
what are risk factors observed in suicide risk assessment?
o Ideation, Plans, Intent to act, Means, o Acute stress o Depression o Impulse control problems o Humiliation/embarrassment o Hopelessness o Use of substances o Previous models of self-harm
what are protective factors in suicide risk assessment?
o Beliefs (eg moral or religious)
o Family (eg children)
o Social Support
o Upcoming positive experiences to look forward to
what is the purpose of a diagnosis?
- Description of levels of psychopathology
- Communication
- Guide Treatment
- Inform prognosis
- Guides Research
- Identifying capacity of someone to stand trial
- Cognitive or functional impairment
what are the key questions for a diagnosis?
- What are the primary symptoms?
- What is the approximate duration of the disorder?
- How severe are the symptoms?
- Has a specific cause or precipitant for the symptoms been identified?
- Are there differential diagnoses?
what is involved in diagnostic reasoning
cues, inferences, patterns, hypothesis, inquiry conclusion and formation which all lead to evidence
what are the categories of mental disorders?
Normative/statistical
what are mental disorders?
A significant behaviour that occurs in an individual that is associated with distress or disability, or an increased risk for suffering death, pain, disability, or an important loss of freedom. This syndrome must not be due to a culturally sanctioned response.