Contemporary psychiatric interviewing: new directions for training

THERE has been an unheralded evolution in psychiatric interviewing, an evolution that is, nonetheless, of a critical nature. Over the past three decades the basic psychiatric interview has evolved into a collection of different psychiatric interviews. Each style of interview is determined by the immediate patient care tasks facing the clinician, whether in an emergency room or a private practice office. The acquisition of new skills, such as structuring techniques and diagnostic examinations using the DSM-III, has become a vital and challenging aspect of the education of contemporary psychiatrists. In this paper the influences that have created these new developments in psychiatric interviewing will be outlined and their implications for training discussed. We will describe a specific training approach that has evolved as a method of helping psychiatric residents develop the skills and confidence needed to handle any one of the numerous types of psychiatric interviews required of a contemporary clinician, ranging from a traditional psychodynamic assessment to a standard diagnostic interview.