The evaluation is core component of psychiatric care, the starting point to work on learning about and addressing the topics that you are seeking care for.

While I will definitely ask questions, I will do my best to listen and hear what is going on. There are a few questions that are mandatory in any psychiatric interview, but beyond that, I will do my best to make sure you don’t feel that I’m asking questions just to get through a checklist and get on to the next patient. I know far too many patients who have experienced that far too often.

I believe that it would be impossible to know everything that would be helpful based on only one conversation with you. I also recognize that time is of the essence, and I’ve tried to include common, evidence based questionnaires in the intake paperwork before we meet, to focus the evaluation on what is important for you, rather than asking you to answer the same set of questions five different times with three different people before you even speak with me. We may even use some questionnaires during the interview, depending on your needs.

We will do our best to identify the most pressing things, and develop a mutual understanding of the working diagnosis, and plan from there how we feel will be best to help you. I believe that a diagnosis is an important tool in quickly describing a constellation of symptoms and keeping records, but you are far more than a combination of symptoms described in the DSM-V. While I am an expert on psychotropic medication, I have yet to find a medication that is effective 100% of the time for every patient. It would be very rare for medication to be the only change that would be helpful for you to have a more optimal life. Therefore, much of our plan will include considering the role of therapy, diet, exercise, lifestyle, and coordinating other clinical interventions in addition to any medications that may be recommended.