Clinical Diagnosis

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          Clinicians may be puzzled by a patient’s symptoms. The usefulness of a test that has been standardized on known clinical populations with established validity and reliability can help the patient and clinician piece together greater parts of that puzzle.  An objective diagnosis and personality profile can assist mental health professionals in planning psychotherapy, measuring effects of medications, and incorporating the information as part of another evaluation such as an adoption or custody study.  

     For example, testing can clarify whether someone has depression or a bipolar disorder.  Recognizing that a person's response patterns match those of known patients who have been at risk for suicide can be life saving.  Is there a serious underlying personality disorder?  Waiting session after session to discover the answers could have significant consequences for the patient and have medical and legal consequences for the clinician and/or prescriber. 

     Testing can help decide whether or not to prescribe medications.  Testing also can determine the effectiveness of medications for the particular patient's problems, while tracking progress and possible side effects.  Testing can answer questions about a patient's capacity to tolerate stress and modulate affect.  It also can determine the degree of engagement in the treatment and help determine what particular treatment modality may have the best prognosis. 

    Testing is also helpful for therapists who are conducting evaluations requiring greater depth about the patient’s psychological and psychiatric functioning. Such assessments include custody assessments, adoption assessments, or termination of parental rights evaluations.

     I choose  the best combination of tests to answer the clinical questions. Whether objective (such as the MMPI-2), projective (such as the Rorschach), or semi-structured (such as the Semi-Structured Clinical Interview for the DSM), my role is to help the patient and/or the therapist understand the disorders that may not be evident in the therapeutic sessions and process. 

     Sometimes the testing becomes part of the treatment process and can be used as a therapeutic tool by asking: “What would you like to learn about yourself from this assessment?”   This approach engages and empowers patients to think about themselves and analyze results in light of their own therapeutic work.