Essentials of Psychiatric Assessment

A psychiatric assessment is a structured clinical conversation, complemented by observation and mental state examination, and supplemented by a physical examination and the interview of family members when appropriate. After the initial interview, the clinician should be able to establish whether the individual has a mental health problem or not, the nature of the problem, and a plan for the most suitable treatment. Essentials of Psychiatric Assessment provides the resident or beginning psychiatrist with a complete road map to a thorough clinical evaluation.

1: Introduction Information Necessary to Be Obtained; Site of the Clinical Evaluation; Methods of Obtaining Information; Methods of Interviewing; Initiating an Interview; Strategies to Get the Patient’s Rapport; Techniques to Get Information 2: Signs and Symptoms in Psychiatry Disturbed Consciousness; General Appearance Abnormalities; Disturbance in Behavior; Disturbance of Language and Speech; Disturbance of Mood and Affect; Thought Disorders; Perceptual Disorders; Disturbance of Orientation; Disturbance of Attention and Concentration; Memory Disturbance, Evaluation of Knowledge Base; Abstraction Abnormalities; Intelligence; Abnormal Insight and Judgment; Cortical Functions; Gender Identity; Disturbance of Self 3: The Psychiatric Interview Outline of Psychiatric History; Identification Data; Chief Complaints; History of Present Illness; Personal History; Mental State Examination; Medical Assessment of Psychiatric Patients; Psychological Testing; Investigations in Psychiatry; 4: Special Considerations Assessment of Children and Adolescents; Emergency Evaluation; The Violent and Aggressive Patient; Suicide; Forensic Assessment; Evaluation of Capacities in Psychiatry; Bibliography

Mohamed Ahmed Abd El-Hay is Professor of Psychiatry at Tanta University, Egypt, where he teaches psychiatry and psychology to medical and nursing students at under and post graduate level. He also practices psychiatry at Tanta University, with special interest in child and adolescent psychiatry. Professor Abd El-Hay has published numerous scientific papers and books on psychiatry, psychology, and social psychology.