Chapter 3: Clinical Diagnosis and Assessment Flashcards
Diagnosis
The identification of the nature of a disorder.
Clinical assessment
The process of obtaining relevant information and making a judgment about mental illness based on the information.
Diagnostic bias
A systematic error in diagnosis.
Reliable
A property of classification systems ( or measures) that consistently produce the same result.
Valid
A property of classification system (or measure) that actually characterize what they are suppose to characterize.
Prognosis
The likely course and outcome of a disorder.
Prevalence
The number of propel who have a disorder in a given period of time.
Comorbidity
The presence of more than on disorder at the same time in a given patient.
Clinical Psychologist
A mental health professional who has doctoral degree that requires several years of related coursework and several years of treating patients while receiving supervision from experienced clinicians.
Counseling psychologist
A mental health professional who has either a Ph.D degree from a psychology program that focuses on counseling or an Ed.D degree from a school of education.
Psychiatrist
A mental health professional who has an M.D. degree and has completed residency that focuses on mental disorders.
Psychiatric nurse
A mental health professional who has an M.S.N. degree, plus a C.S. certificate in psychiatric nursing.
Social worker
A mental health professional who has an M.S.W. degree and may have had training to provide psychotherapy to help individuals and families.
Computerized axial tomography (CT)
A neuroimaging technique that uses X-rays to build a three-dimensional image CT or CAT scan) of the brain.
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
A neuroimaging technique that creates especially sharp images of the brain by measuring the magnetic properties of atoms in the brain.
Positron emission tomography (PET)
A neuroimaging technique that measures blood flow (or energy consumption in the brain and requires introducing a very small amount of radioactive substance into the blood stream.
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)
A neuroimaging technique that uses MRI to obtain images of brain functioning, which reveal the extent to which different brain areas are activated during particular tasks.
Neuropsychological testing
The employment of assessment techniques that use behavioral responses to test items in order to draw inferences about brain functioning.
Clinical interview
A meeting between clinician and patient during which the clinician asks questions related to the patient’s symptoms and functioning.
Malingering
Intentional false reporting of symptoms or exaggeration of existing symptoms, either for material gain or to avoid unwanted events.
Factitious disorder
A psychological disorder marked by the false reporting or false reporting or inducing of medical or psychological symptoms in order to receive attention.
Projective test
A tool for personality assessment in which the patient is present with ambigiuous stimuli (such as inkblots or stick figures) and is asked to make sense of and explain them.
