DSM-5

Question 1

Assessment Measures for DSM-5

Answer 1

Cross-cutting symptom measures- designed to be used in the initial patient interview and during treatment to monitor progress; provide information on mental health domains that are important across the psychiatric diagnoses

Disorder specific severity measures- correspond to DSM-‘s diagnostic criteria; some self-report measures and some completed by clinician;

The World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule- used to assess level of disability in six domains: understanding and communicating, getting around, self-care, getting along with other people, life activities, and participation in society

Personality inventories- measure personality traits in five domains: negative affect, detachment, antagonism, disinhibition, and psychoticism

Question 2

Cultural Formation Tools

Answer 2

1. Outline for Cultural Formation- provides guidelines for assessing four factors: the client’s cultural identity, the client’s cultural conceptualization of distress, the psychosocial stressors and cultural factors that impact the client’s vulnerability and resilience; and cultural factors relevant to the relationship between the client and therapist
2. Cultural Formation Interview (CFI)- semi-structured interview consisting of 16 questions designed to obtain information on the client’s views regarding the social/cultural context of his/her presenting problems; focuses on four domains: cultural definition of the problem, cultural perceptions of cause, context, and support; cultural factors affecting self-coping and past help-seeking; and cultural factors affecting current help seeking
3. Cultural Concepts of Distress- “ways cultural groups experience, understand, and communicate suffering, behavioral problems, or troubling thoughts and emotions”; distinguishes between three types of cultural concepts
   - Cultural syndromes- clusters of symptoms and attributions that co-occur among individuals from a particular culture and are recognized by members of that culture as coherent patterns of existence
   - Cultural idioms of distress- used by members of different cultures to express distress and provide shared ways for talking about personal and social concerns
   - Cultural explanations- refer to the explanatory models that members of a culture use to explain the meaning and causes of symptoms, illness, and distress