Assessment Tools in Psychiatry

The primary psychiatric assessment tool is a direct face-to-face interview where form and content are essential. Interviewing essentially is an active and selective process, not only the asking of the same set of questions to every patient. Assessment tools can complement the interview, i.e., (semi)-structured interviews, standardized data forms, questionnaires, and rating scales. They are widely used in clinical research but are less often incorporated into daily practice. Assessment tools can be used for multiple reasons: for diagnostic reasons, for assessing severity, and for assessing change during treatment. In the first part of this chapter, general assessment tools are discussed (those assessing across DSM/ICD diagnoses including fully structured and semi-structured interviews, as well as those reflecting a more dimensionally conceptualized psychopathology). In the second part of this chapter, specific assessment tools are discussed: after a general orientation and summarizing some trends, assessment tools for specific disorders as well as assessment tools measuring outcome beyond symptoms and disorders are discussed. It is not within the scope of this chapter to give a systematic review of assessment tools or to review all available tools; the purpose is to provide an orientation among the countless instruments and scales which can guide clinicians and researchers, with an emphasis on tools that are useful in clinical practice and/or that are frequently used in clinical research.