A clinic uses structured DSM-5 interviews to evaluate adult outpatients. One patient reports persistent, excessive worry across multiple domains for over a year, accompanied by restlessness, fatigue, and difficulty concentrating, with no specific feared object. Another reports recurrent, unexpected episodes of intense fear lasting minutes, with palpitations and a sense of impending doom.
Why does the clinic use structured interviews rather than open-ended ones?
- Acheck_circle
To improve inter-rater reliability of diagnoses
- B
To eliminate any need for clinical judgment
- C
To make the assessment less standardized
- D
To bypass DSM criteria
Explanation
Structured interviews standardize symptom assessment, increasing inter-rater reliability across clinicians applying the same diagnostic criteria.