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The Psychiatric Interview: General Structures and Techniques

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Tasman’s Psychiatry

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Abstract

The psychiatric interview is the primary means of assessment in clinical psychiatry. The interview includes an important component, the mental status examination. Psychiatric interviews are performed in many different contexts and must be flexibly adapted to the patient and his/her situation at hand. There is a core set of information to obtain, structured by the biopsychosocial model of behavior, so that an adequate evaluation of the patient’s symptoms can take place and a diagnostic formulation and treatment recommendations can be made. Every evaluation must also assess safety issues such as suicide risk and violence. There are many factors that affect the interview, including those related to the patient, the interviewer, potential cultural differences between them, situational factors, and communication styles. Due to the nature of their illness, some patients will be able to provide only limited information, a situation in which different techniques and data from collateral sources information are particularly important. Examples of specific techniques for a variety of circumstances and situations are presented.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry and Psychology, Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine, Rochester, MN, USA

    Simon Kung & Renato D. Alarcón

  2. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, FL, USA

    Dante M. Durand

  3. Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Lima, Peru

    Renato D. Alarcón

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  1. Simon Kung
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  2. Dante M. Durand
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  3. Renato D. Alarcón
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Simon Kung .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY, USA

    Allan Tasman

  2. Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Cent, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    Michelle B. Riba

  3. Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Oakland, CA, USA

    Renato D. Alarcón

  4. Columbia University Medical Center, New York, USA

    César A. Alfonso

  5. Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan

    Shigenobu Kanba

  6. Department of Psychiatry, University of Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya

    David M. Ndetei

  7. Malaysian Research Inst on Ageing, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Selangor, Malaysia

    Chee H. Ng

  8. Department of Psychiatry, University of Munich, München, Bayern, Germany

    Thomas G. Schulze

  9. Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Belgrade, Serbia

    Dusica Lecic-Tosevski

Section Editor information

  1. Psychiatry and Psychology, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, MN, MN, USA

    Renato D. Alarcón

  2. Honorio Delgado Chair, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Lima, Peru

    Renato D. Alarcón

  3. Mayo Clinic, Rochester, USA

    Maria Lapid

  4. Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress, Dept of Psychiatry, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, MD, USA

    Robert J. Ursano

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Kung, S., Durand, D.M., Alarcón, R.D. (2023). The Psychiatric Interview: General Structures and Techniques. In: Tasman, A., et al. Tasman’s Psychiatry. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-42825-9_88-1

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