Psychiatric history

A psychiatric history is the result of a medical process where a clinician working in the field of mental health (usually a psychiatrist) systematically records the content of an interview with a patient. This is then combined with the mental status examination to produce a "psychiatric formulation" of the person being examined.

Psychologists take a similar history, often referred to as a psychological history.

This article mainly covers the initial assessment history taking of a patient presenting for the first time with a new complaint.

In the field of medicine a patient history is an account of the significant events in the patient's life that have a relevance to the issue being addressed. The clinician taking the history guides the process in an attempt to achieve a succinct summary of these relevant details. Much of the history is obtained by asking questions. Some of these questions are quite specific, such as, "How old are you?" and others are more open, such as, "How have you been feeling lately?" Although the structure of the interview may appear disjointed, the end result is usually under a set of headings which have a worldwide similarity.

The basic details of who the patient is are collected. This includes their age, sex, educational status, religion, occupation, relationship status, address and contact details. This serves several purposes. Firstly, it is necessary information for administrative purposes and for this reason some of this is often taken by clerks. Secondly, the questions are largely non threatening and provide a gentle introduction into the meeting of patient and clinician. Thirdly, it provides a format for individual introduction suitable to the culture. Thus the clinician may start by introducing themselves and then move on to these questions. This initial structure can provide a sense of familiarity for the patient who is stressed about what is happening.

The next step is to determine why the patient is there. How did they get to be in the interview? Were they referred by someone (such as another clinician, a relative or friend, or by the police or the courts) or did they come looking for help? If they were referred by someone then what was that person's reason for the referral. Often such information is provided in a referral letter or by an earlier phone call.

The clinician next tries to clarify what are the main problems that have brought the patient to be there. Some of this may have already been achieved in the previous section. The patient may have more than one problem and these may be related, such as posttraumatic stress disorder and alcohol abuse or seemingly unrelated, such as panic disorder and premature ejaculation. The patient is unlikely to present a diagnosis and is more likely to describe the nature of their problems in common language.

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