Clinical Assessment and Diagnosis

• Clinical Assessment: systematic evaluation and measurement of biological, psychological and sociological factors in an individual presenting w/ a possible psychological disorder.
• Diagnosis: the process of determing if an individual meets all the criteria for certain psychological disorder in the basis of DSM5
• Three basic concepts: reliability, validity and standardization.
• Clinical Interview: the core of clinical work.
• Clinical interview: 1. gather information.

  2. detailed history of the individual's life and:

  3. presenting problem.
• Mental Status Exam: a systematic observation of an individual' behavior and is used to organize infromation during the clinical interview.
• Appearance and Behavior: noting any overt physical behaviors and even fashio, appearance, posture and facial expression.
• Thought Process: the way they talk, asking certain questions.
• Mood and Affect: Mood is the predominant feeling of an individual, affect refers to the feeling state accompanied what we say at any given point.
• Intellectual Functioning: Clinicians estimate the intelligence of the patient.
• Sensorium: general awareness of surrounding.
• Sensorium: Person, Place and Time.
• Sensorium is clear or Oriented times three.
• Semi-Structured Interview: departure from the set of question to follow up on certain issues.
• Behavioral Assessment: using direct observations to formally assess an individual's thought, feelings and behavior.
• Behavioral Assessment: people who lacks the ability of self-reporting.
• ABC of Observation: antecedents, behavior and consequences.
• Formal Observation: observable and measurable, whether a pattern of behaviors exist and design a treatment based on these pattern.
• Informal Observation: recollections and interpretation of the observer.
• Slef-Monitoring: allowing the person to observe their own.
• Checklists and Behavior Rating SCale: a formal way of observing behaviors used before and peridiocally during treatment to assess changes in behavior.
• Reactivity: changes in on'es behavior caused by observation of onself or other people.
• Neuropychological Test: used to determing possible contribution of brain damage or cognitive dysfuntion to the patient's condition.
• Projective Test: tools that utilize ambigious stimuli
• Personality Inventories: people with similar disorder tend to answer, as a group in a certain way. The pattern of answering is the significant factor.
• Intelligence Test: used to asses the intellectual capability and functioning of a person.
• Stanford-Binet Test: developed by Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon.
• Who revised stanford-binet test in the USA?

  Lewis Terman
• Deviation Intelligence Quotient: a person's score is compared only with the scores of other in the same age.
• Ratio Intelligence Quotient
• Weschler Intelligence Test: developed by David Wechsler, contain verbal scales and performance scale.
• Neuroimaging: a technique used to look inside the nervous system and take accurate pictures of brain structure and functioning.
• Brain Structure: CT scan and MRI
• Computerized Axial Tomography: picture of the brain will be reconstructed based on the degree of blockage.
• Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI): head is placed in a high-strength magnetic field which radio frequency are transmitted, alerting proton in H atom.
• Brain Functioning: PET scan, SPECT and fMRI
• Positron Emission Tomography: subject is injected with tracer substance attached to radioactive isotopes, the substance interacts with blood, oxygen and glucose.
• Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography: like PEt but with different racer substance, is less expensive and requires less sophisticated equipment but less accurate.
• Functional MRI: an MRI procedure that work quicker and takes pictures of the brain at work, recording its changes in one second to next.
• Psychophysiology: measurable changes in the nervous system that reflects emotional or psychological eventss.