Handbook of Diagnostic and Structured Interviewing

by Richard Rogers

Standardized interviews provide a systematic and validated approach to clinical assessment and diagnosis. This comprehensive handbook presents current, authoritative information on the principal interviews used to evaluate adults and children in a wide range of contexts and settings. It offers crucial guidance on the selection of appropriate measures for Axis I disorders, Axis II disorders, and specialized syndromes, providing up-to-date data on reliability, validity, and clinical applications. Structured to facilitate comparison across measures, chapters present key information in a clear format that includes bulleted text and tables. Summary boxes offer quick access to such vital practical details as administration requirements, distinctive features, and how each major measure can be obtained. Special features include coverage of recently developed interviews, a cutting-edge chapter on forensic applications, and attention to overarching issues of research and practice. Unique in the depth and breadth of its coverage, the Handbook represents a complete revision and expansion of the author's previous work, Diagnostic and Structured Interviewing. An essential reference for psychologists, psychiatrists, and other mental health professionals and trainees, it also serves as a graduate-level text.

Genres: Psychology

516 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Richard Rogers, Ph.D, ABPP (Forensic Psychology) is Regents Professor of clinical psychology at the University of North Texas (Denton, TX). Dr. Rogers' research interests include: forensic evaluation (Miranda, competency to stand trial, insanity), validation of structured interviews, and psychological assessment.

Academic profile: http://psychology.unt.edu/faculty/ric...

Reviews

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very few mental health clinicians (psychologists, psychiatrists, clinical social workers, etc.) know that structured interviews significantly improve diagnostic accuracy.

These professionals suffer from a pernicious problem that afflicts all humans: Cognitive biases. In Handbook of Diagnostic and Structured Interviewing Dr. Rogers explains--in the first chapter--how structured interviews help clinicians avoid many tenacious cognitive biases.

Ah, I can hear you thinking, "Yeah, but I know about cognitive biases, so I don't have to worry about that."

Yeah, I think that too sometimes. If I'm lucky, the conscientious part of my brain will gently remind me, "You might want to consider that you are being hypnotized by the Over-Confidence Bias at this very moment..."

That's not to mention a half dozen or more cognitive biases that can lead us into the dreamy poppy fields of malignant neglect. "Who me? Nah, I got it covered. I don't need these old stodgy books."

Even though Rogers wrote this book 16 years ago, I still recommend it to graduate students, interns, new psychologists, and ... well, any mental health clinicians who wants to conduct more accurate assessments.

Heck, you can buy this book for a couple of bucks via your favorite used book vendor. It's worth much more than that IMHO.

~ Mark

P.S. If you want to read a superb article about how cognitive biases adversely affect all types of medical diagnosis--and what to do about it--I highly recommend:

Croskerry, P. (2003). The importance of cognitive errors in diagnosis and strategies to minimize them. Academic Medicine, 78(8), 775–80.

It's available free online at:
http://journals.lww.com/academicmedic...

[stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

just reading the SCID, DIS and a few other sections, DIB because i'm interested.

the SCID section is fairly good. it's not very entertaining, but it's clear enough. good intro to the scales, but a lot of important ones are missing, so this definitely isn't a need-to-buy. i would suggest just reading the relevant chapters if you are curious or want more info, but just get it from your library.