A clinical interview is used by psychologists, physicians, and researchers as a tool to diagnose mental illnesses of various types accurately. For an initial interview of a client, I would use a structured clinical interview format based on DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Health Disorders, 5th Edition). This is because of the familiarity with the diagnostic criteria for mental illness and for practice to become a better interviewer as a student going into mental health (APA, 2013). This interview format's essential element is that the DSM-5 helps diagnose if the patient has more than one mental health illness. Besides, this diagnostic criterion has standardized questions that help ensure the same way of interview for each of the patients.
DSM-5 has several questions that are specific and detailed, depending on the illnesses suspected. For example, in a structured interview to diagnose an obsessive-compulsive disorder, the questions asked include:
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What are the details about your compulsions and obsessions?
How long ago did the compulsions and obsessions start?
Has these compulsions and obsessions affected your life? If yes, how?
Did the compulsions and obsessions start after taking a new drug or after a new illness?
These questions could also include asking the patient how old they were when they first had the symptoms.
On the other hand, my preceptor uses a clinical diagnostic interview (CDI) format in the client's initial interview. However, in this type of interview, there are no standardized interview questions. The mental health professional and the client engages in a narrative or a conversation. Unlike the DSM-5 interview that takes about 15 minutes, the CDI interview takes about 2.5 hours, and to help the interviewer with the diagnosis, a checklist for symptoms is usually used with the CDI (ANA, 2014). The questions for this format leave room for details since they are broader. For example, the interviewer might ask the client what his or her childhood will be like.
References
American Nurses Association (ANA). (2014). Psychiatric-Mental Health Nursing (2nd ed.). MAryland: Silver Spring.
American Psychiatric Association (APA). (2013). DIAGNOSTIC AND STATISTICAL MANUAL OF MENTAL DISORDERS (5th ed.). Washington DC: American Psychiatric Publishing.
