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Best uses of screening tools rating scales structured interviews
Screening tools, rating scales, and structured interviews can help guide the evaluation, ensure important screening questions are asked, and facilitate patient report that might not have spontaneously volunteered.
Some are validated measures of symptom severity and help anchor the diagnosis and treatment response to quantifiable data (rather than just clinical impressions) and may be used for research purposes as well.
Some (e.g., Patient Health Questionnaire-9 [PHQ-9], and the Neuropsychiatric Inventory-Q [NPI-Q]) are self-report measures and can be filled out by the patient prior to the visit.
Some require a clinician to administer and may be brief and focused (e.g., Beck Depression Inventory) or long and thorough (e.g., the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-5 Disorders [SCID-5]).
Sources
Arciniegas DB: Emotion. In Arciniegas DB, Anderson CA, Filley CM (eds): Behavioral neurology & neuropsychiatry. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013, pp 270-273.
