Assessment tools have two primary purposes: 1) to measure illness and diagnose clients, and 2) to measure a client’s response to treatment. Often, you will find that multiple assessment tools are designed to measure the same condition or response. Not all tools, however, are appropriate for use in all clinical situations. You must consider the strengths and weaknesses of each tool to select the appropriate assessment tool for your client. For this Discussion, as you examine the assessment tool assigned to you by the Course Instructor, consider its use in psychotherapy.
- Review the below Learning Resources including Videos and reflect on the insights they provide regarding psychiatric assessment and diagnosis.
- Consider the elements of the psychiatric interview, history, and examination.
- Consider the assessment tool assigned to you by the Course Instructor.
Assignment: 1-page
Assigned Assessment Tool: “PHQ-9: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; National Institutes of Health”
Write:
- Choose 3 components of a psychiatric interview and discuss, why these components are important.
- Choose one of the following rating scales and discuss, when it might be appropriate to use this scale, and how this rating scale may be helpful to you in your work as PMHNP: PHQ-9, GAD-7, AIMS, or Montreal Cognitive Assessment.
- Support your approach with evidence-based literature.
Here are a few examples for more information:
- PHQ-9: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; National Institutes of Health
- GAD-7: Anxiety and Depression Association of America; Health Resources and Services Administration
- AIMS: The AIMS Assessment and Tardive Dyskinesia | aapp.orgLinks to an external site.
- MOCA: Parkinson’s Disease Research, Education and Clinical Centers Home (va.gov)Links to an external site.
NOTE: Please use Resources/References not older than 5-years. (Late 2018/2019 – 2023)
LEARNING RESOURCES
- American Psychiatric Association. (2022). Section I: DSM-5 basics. In Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders Links to an external site.(5th ed., text rev.). https://go.openathens.net/redirector/waldenu.edu?url=https://dsm.psychiatryonline.org/doi/full/10.5555/appi.books.9780890425787.Section_1Links to an external site.
- American Psychiatric Association. (2022). Classification. In Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders Links to an external site.(5th ed., text rev., pp. xiii-xl). https://go.openathens.net/redirector/waldenu.edu?url=https://dsm.psychiatryonline.org/doi/full/10.5555/appi.books.9780890425787.Section_1Links to an external site.
- Review
- Carlat, D. J. (2017). The psychiatric interview (4th ed.). Wolters Kluwer.
- Chapter 34, Writing Up the Results of the Interview
- Boland, R. & Verduin, M. L. & Ruiz, P. (2022). Kaplan & Sadock’s synopsis of psychiatry (12th ed.). Wolters Kluwer.
- Chapter 1, “Examination and Diagnosis of the Psychiatric Patient”
- American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (1995). Practice parameters for the assessment and treatment of children and adolescentsLinks to an external site.. https://www.aacap.org/App_Themes/AACAP/docs/practice_parameters/psychiatric_assessment_practice_parameter.pdf
- American Psychiatric Association. (2016). Practice guidelines for the psychiatric evaluation of adultsLinks to an external site. (3rd ed.). https://psychiatryonline.org/doi/pdf/10.1176/appi.books.9780890426760
- Sadock, B. J., Sadock, V. A., & Ruiz, P. (2017). Classification in psychiatry. In Kaplan and Sadock’s Concise Textbook of Clinical PsychiatryLinks to an external site. (4th ed., pp. 1–8). Wolters Kluwer.
- Sadock, B. J., Sadock, V. A., & Ruiz, P. (2017). Psychiatric interview, history, and mental status examination. In Kaplan and Sadock’s Concise Textbook of Clinical PsychiatryLinks to an external site. (4th ed., pp. 39–52). Wolters Kluwer.
- Sadock, B. J., Sadock, V. A., & Ruiz, P. (2017). Medical assessment and laboratory testing in psychiatry. In Kaplan and Sadock’s Concise Textbook of Clinical PsychiatryLinks to an external site. (4th ed., pp. 16–21). Wolters Kluwer.
Media
- Classroom Productions. (Producer). (2015). Diagnostic criteria Links to an external site.[Video].
- MedEasy. (2017). Psychiatric history taking and the mental status examination | USMLE & COMLEXLinks to an external site. [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5KwDgWX8L8
- Psychiatry Lectures. (2015). Psychiatry lecture: How to do a psychiatric assessmentLinks to an external site. [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRiCntvec5U
