Peer reviewed
ERIC Number: EJ705250
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2004-Aug-1
Pages: 4
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0890-8567
EISSN: N/A
Introducing a Structured Interview into a Clinical Setting
Thienemann, Margo
Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, v43 n8 p1057 Aug 2004
A professor discussed options for interviewing new patients using a bloodhound metaphor. After picking up a scent at the door, would the hound methodically search from room to room to room? Or would the hound efficiently follow the thread of the scent directly to the meter reader? In the past, psychiatrists learned to interview by tracking emotional "scents" to find clues to conflicts and symptoms. When insight-oriented and supportive therapies were recommended for most psychiatric problems, open-ended interviews launched therapy effectively. Over time, new treatments have developed that specifically target particular symptoms and diagnoses. To test and use these medications and therapies appropriately, psychiatric subjects' pathology should be classified reliably. Otherwise, different investigators' subject populations could not be rightfully compared with each other and patients might receive treatments that were not indicated for their particular problems. A new diagnostic system evolved, changing from one of analysis of conflict and deviations in development to one using the medical mode in which diagnoses are determined by symptomatic phenomenology. Constellations of signs, symptoms, and illness course defined specific diagnostic entities. This article discusses structured clinical interviews, their implications on diagnosis, and their positive and negative effects on patients.
Descriptors: Psychiatry, Patients, Anxiety, Psychological Testing, Diagnostic Tests, Mental Disorders, Evaluation Methods, Phenomenology, Clinical Diagnosis, Interviews
Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, P.O. Box 1620, Hagerstown, MD 21741. Tel: 800-638-3030 (Toll Free); Fax: 301-223-2400.
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A