Welcome to PsychEd, the psychiatry podcast for medical learners, by medical learners. In this episode of our miniseries on psychiatric skills, we review the core content areas of a psychiatric assessment and look at techniques to improve interviewing efficiency, accuracy and alliance building. Our expert for this episode is Dr. Juveria Zaheer, a clinician-scientist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, and an assistant professor at the University of Toronto, in Toronto, ON. 

 

Learning Objectives:

By the end of the episode you, the learner, should...

1. Have a clear understanding of the goals of a complete psychiatric interview and the general structure and content that should be covered
2. Feel comfortable to begin to use techniques that will help you conduct a professional, compassionate, empathic, efficient, and accurate interview
3. Be familiar with techniques you can use to facilitate information gathering in more challenging interviews 

Episode Timepoints

• 3:15 - Purpose of the psychiatric interview 
• 6:30 - First content areas of the interview; introduction, ID, RFR, CC, HPI, ROS, Past Psych Hx
• 19:00 - Techniques and Strategies for Organized and Efficient Psychiatric ROS
• 26:00 - Details of Past Psychiatric History 
• 29:30 - Past Medical History
• 31:00 - Substance Use History
• 33:30 - Medications
  
• 34:20 - Family Psych History
• 36:25 - Personal and Developmental History (Content & Process discussion)
• 44:00 - Commonly missed areas including Legal/Forensic history
• 45:00 - Shift from content to process discussion “how to best manage a psychiatric interview”
• 49:00 - Self-care and monitoring 
• 52:00 - Building rapport, therapeutic alliance, empathy 
• 53:30 - Alex and Lucy reflect on their growth as interviewers over 4 years in residency 
• 73:00 - Managing challenging interviews

References and Resources
1) Shea, S. C. (1998). Psychiatric Interviewing E-Book: The Art of Understanding: A Practical Guide for Psychiatrists, Psychologists, Counselors, Social Workers, Nurses, and Other Mental Health Professionals

2) Carlat, D. J. (2016). The psychiatric interview: A practical guide. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.

 

CPA Note: The views expressed in this podcast do not necessarily reflect those of the Canadian Psychiatric Association.

 

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