Psych Interview

Question 1

Appearance

Answer 1

Overall cleanliness, personal grooming, clothing style

Common terms: clean, casually dressed, disheveled, well-groomed

Question 2

Behavior

Answer 2

Physical manifestation of a patient’s mental status

Common terms: calm, cooperative, agitated, distracted

Question 3

Speech

Answer 3

Rate, rhythm, volume, articulation, pressure, latency

Common terms: fast/slow, mute, choppy, explosive, laconic, soft/loud, clear, mumbled, pressured/non-pressured

Question 4

Orientation

Answer 4

Alert vs not alert: patient’s ongoing purposeful interaction with the external environment or lack thereof

Orientation to person, place, time: patient’s ongoing purposeful expression of awareness of the external environment or lack thereof

Question 5

Mood

Answer 5

Internal, subjective description and experience of the patient’s emotional state

WHAT THE PATIENT SAYS

Question 6

Affect

Answer 6

External, objective demonstration of the patient’s emotional state

Common terms: constricted, blunted, flat, labile, expansive, congruent, incongruent

Question 7

Thought Process

Answer 7

How the patient organized their own thoughts and verbal statements

Common terms: linear, circumstantial, tangential, perseverating, derailing, flight of ideas, goal directed

Question 8

Thought Content

Answer 8

Bizarre vs non-bizarre delusions: fixed, falsifiable belief

Visual/Auditory/Command hallucinations: sensory perception of something that does not exist

IMPORTANT: note if contains suicidal or homicidal ideation

Question 9

Insight

Answer 9

Patient’s awareness and recognition of their own circumstances

Common terms: excellent, good, fair, poor

Question 10

Judgement

Answer 10

Active, ongoing demonstration of insight

Common terms: intact, not intact, good, poor

Question 11

Cognition

Answer 11

Concentration, long and short-term memory, general knowledge, and executive function