psychiatric assessment what does it involve?

[cagey2]

Hi has anyone had a psychiatric assessment in the NHS? What does it involve? THanks in advance.

[ArseForElbow]

Lots of questions about your mental health from teenage years to date and about families mental health and lifestyle questions, mine took around an hour.

[msrisotto]

Yeah that plus what symptoms you are experiencing, when that started, what was going on around that time for you that might have triggered it.

[cagey2]

OK, thanks. What about rating scales and diagnosing things like Personality Disorder?

[djrmrcbhyvf]

IME a waste of time. Services are too stretched to do very much to help so just get you onto the next person ASAP

[djrmrcbhyvf]

I had the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory but that was an applied psychologist not the psychiatrist. Psychiatric assessments were much more just talking about how you're feeling, for how long etc Depends what it is for I guess ...

[msrisotto]

Not very helpful djrmrcbhyvf, every team and indeed, every clinician who carries out assessments is different. Sorry you didn't find it helpful but the OP might.

It is within the realms of possibility that they could ask you to complete an anxiety or depression scale. PD scales take hours and you need to be trained so aren't commonly used.