ADVANCED ASSESSMENT INTERPRETING
FINDINGS AND FORMULATING DIFFERENTIAL
DIAGNOSES COMPREHENSIVE STUDY GUIDE
2026 ADVANCED CLINICAL ASSESSMENT AND
DIAGNOSTIC REASONING
◉ disorder. Answer: one meets all the criteria in the DSM for a
disorder
◉ mental status exam. Answer: no more than 5 minutes since most
of differential diagnosis will be based on history. psychiatric exam
part 2 brief exam. broken into 2 parts psychiatric and neurologic
which includes the observation of the clients appearance, motor
function (tics, tourettes), cognitive functioning, behavior,
cooperation, speech and thought pattern (logical or not), affect,
mood, judgement and insight, perception, suicidal/homicidal
ideations, reliability of information provided, oriented x3 (person,
place, time), medical problems concrete or abstract . organizes info
◉ borderline. Answer: stable personality disorder, not going to
experience psychosis. experiences unstable attachments
,◉ cultural vs. universal. Answer: not enough evidence to agree if
psychiatric disorders or symptoms are universal or a result of
cultural or contextual factors
◉ assessment. Answer: first step in in social work, core skill. broad,
ongoing, evaluate personal resources (family, strengths, cognitive
functioning) evaluate deficits. include health ego functioning and
mental status. risk assessment always ask depressed client about
risk of suicidal or homicide. biases impact how you assess client.
part of a psychosocial workup—an ecological approach.
◉ diagnosis. Answer: never changes, focused, problem centered,
pathology, impacts treatment. focus on Symptoms of behavior
,individual behavior
,Focus on pathology
◉ pathology. Answer: behave in an extreme and unacceptable way,
and have very powerful feelings that they cannot control.
◉ conduct disorder. Answer: children kill animals, set fires, turn into
criminals, no remorse
◉ mood vs. affect. Answer: mood= season affect=weather. mood
continues over over time, pervasive. internally felt emotions
(depression anxiety, anger). affect may change quickly, current
,emotional state. outward display of emotions should be
differentiated from mood. affect is normally appropriate to situation
◉ three types of affect (emotional states). Answer: blunt-very little
range monotone, flat- little range of emotion, labile-rapidly changing
◉ labile. Answer: affect- rapidly changing
◉ blunt. Answer: very little range monotone- affect
◉ flat. Answer: little range of emotion
◉ diurnal variation. Answer: changes in mood in depression
throughout the day. typically is more severe in the morning and
lessens
◉ schizophrenia. Answer: variety of negative and positive symptoms
(positive- delusion, negative-)often have disorganized speech
◉ positive formal thought disorder/disorganized speech. Answer:
more then there should be, positive symptom
◉ types of disorganized speech. Answer: tangetiality- responds but
goes in a different direction, circumstantiality-unnecessary details
, eventually makes a point, illogical , derailment- loose associations,
jumps from subject to subject, words make sentences but sentences
do not make sense, thought blocking- sudden disruption of thought,
break in flow of ideas common in schizophrenia and dementia,
clanging- using rhymes or sounds, distractable- changes subject mid
sentence, often because they hear voices get distracted, pressure of
speech- can't get the words out fast enough, word
salad/incoherance/ schizophasia- words thrown together they make
no sense
◉ negative formal thought disorder. Answer: poverty of speech,
negative symptom
◉ poverty of content. Answer: fluent speech but no content, convey
little info
◉ positive vs. negative symptoms. Answer: positive= symptom is
occuring, negative- lack of symptoms
◉ delusion. Answer: abnormal thoughts, positive symptom, false
beliefs can't be rationalized with facts or evidence, long term
◉ provisional diagnosis. Answer: strong belief individual will meet
all the criteria for a disorder but not currently met. usually due to
time frame
FINDINGS AND FORMULATING DIFFERENTIAL
DIAGNOSES COMPREHENSIVE STUDY GUIDE
2026 ADVANCED CLINICAL ASSESSMENT AND
DIAGNOSTIC REASONING
◉ disorder. Answer: one meets all the criteria in the DSM for a
disorder
◉ mental status exam. Answer: no more than 5 minutes since most
of differential diagnosis will be based on history. psychiatric exam
part 2 brief exam. broken into 2 parts psychiatric and neurologic
which includes the observation of the clients appearance, motor
function (tics, tourettes), cognitive functioning, behavior,
cooperation, speech and thought pattern (logical or not), affect,
mood, judgement and insight, perception, suicidal/homicidal
ideations, reliability of information provided, oriented x3 (person,
place, time), medical problems concrete or abstract . organizes info
◉ borderline. Answer: stable personality disorder, not going to
experience psychosis. experiences unstable attachments
,◉ cultural vs. universal. Answer: not enough evidence to agree if
psychiatric disorders or symptoms are universal or a result of
cultural or contextual factors
◉ assessment. Answer: first step in in social work, core skill. broad,
ongoing, evaluate personal resources (family, strengths, cognitive
functioning) evaluate deficits. include health ego functioning and
mental status. risk assessment always ask depressed client about
risk of suicidal or homicide. biases impact how you assess client.
part of a psychosocial workup—an ecological approach.
◉ diagnosis. Answer: never changes, focused, problem centered,
pathology, impacts treatment. focus on Symptoms of behavior
,individual behavior
,Focus on pathology
◉ pathology. Answer: behave in an extreme and unacceptable way,
and have very powerful feelings that they cannot control.
◉ conduct disorder. Answer: children kill animals, set fires, turn into
criminals, no remorse
◉ mood vs. affect. Answer: mood= season affect=weather. mood
continues over over time, pervasive. internally felt emotions
(depression anxiety, anger). affect may change quickly, current
,emotional state. outward display of emotions should be
differentiated from mood. affect is normally appropriate to situation
◉ three types of affect (emotional states). Answer: blunt-very little
range monotone, flat- little range of emotion, labile-rapidly changing
◉ labile. Answer: affect- rapidly changing
◉ blunt. Answer: very little range monotone- affect
◉ flat. Answer: little range of emotion
◉ diurnal variation. Answer: changes in mood in depression
throughout the day. typically is more severe in the morning and
lessens
◉ schizophrenia. Answer: variety of negative and positive symptoms
(positive- delusion, negative-)often have disorganized speech
◉ positive formal thought disorder/disorganized speech. Answer:
more then there should be, positive symptom
◉ types of disorganized speech. Answer: tangetiality- responds but
goes in a different direction, circumstantiality-unnecessary details
, eventually makes a point, illogical , derailment- loose associations,
jumps from subject to subject, words make sentences but sentences
do not make sense, thought blocking- sudden disruption of thought,
break in flow of ideas common in schizophrenia and dementia,
clanging- using rhymes or sounds, distractable- changes subject mid
sentence, often because they hear voices get distracted, pressure of
speech- can't get the words out fast enough, word
salad/incoherance/ schizophasia- words thrown together they make
no sense
◉ negative formal thought disorder. Answer: poverty of speech,
negative symptom
◉ poverty of content. Answer: fluent speech but no content, convey
little info
◉ positive vs. negative symptoms. Answer: positive= symptom is
occuring, negative- lack of symptoms
◉ delusion. Answer: abnormal thoughts, positive symptom, false
beliefs can't be rationalized with facts or evidence, long term
◉ provisional diagnosis. Answer: strong belief individual will meet
all the criteria for a disorder but not currently met. usually due to
time frame
