Psychological Assessment

Psychological Assessment Report "Frank". It should be 5-7 pages in length.

(Frank Psychosocial, MSE History, WAIS, WRAT, MMPI-2, MCMI-III)

A description of the content for each of the main sections of your report follows. The form headings correspond to the sections below, and the psychosocial history can be dictated or written directly from this form.

Identification and Referral

• Client’s name, age, marital status, ethnicity, gender.
• Describe the setting, including where the testing took place, how the client travelled there (or if you went to the client’s home), if he or she was on time and accompanied by anyone.
• Reason for testing at this time, including the referral source (can be a self-referral or a fictitious referrer) and the information sought by the referrer.
• Presenting problems and symptoms.

There should be one or more referral questions to be answered by your assessment. These questions will be answered in your “Recommendations” section and the answers should flow logically from your findings. Some common referral questions for psychological testing include:
• Mental health diagnosis and treatment or management recommendations.
• Disability determination – whether the client is able to work and limitations.
• Vocational/educational assessment – what kind of work would be a good fit for the client’s abilities.
• Learning disability assessment – is a learning disability present and what sort of limitations and accommodations are appropriate.

History

Preface your history by indicating the source (such as client’s report or family report) and whether you feel it is reliable.

Family History. Include information about current family, current living situation and family of origin.
Educational and Vocational History. Level of education completed, high school and college grades, any history of special education, expulsions and suspensions, occupation and jobs held, last worked, reason for any dismissals, longest time at the same job, vocational aspirations if relevant.
Medical and Mental Health History. The non-psychiatric section should include reports of medical diagnoses and symptoms, current medications, surgeries and overnight hospitalizations, and head injuries. The mental health section should include psychiatric hospitalizations, outpatient mental health treatment, substance abuse treatment, history of psychotropic medication prescriptions, and suicide attempts. When applicable, indicate that there was “no reported history of …” to show that you inquired about the areas above.
Antisocial Behavior/Substance Abuse. Age, charge, and outcome of any arrests or other legal problems. Current and past use of alcohol and other recreational drugs, 12-step group attendance.

Daily Functioning
?Client’s mode of travel (car, bus, family rides) and ability (short trips by car, uses the bus but needs help to get to a new location, etc.). Client’s daily living skills, including ability to groom, bathe, dress, do household chores, and manage money. Include a general description of the client’s daily activities including job, recreational, and social activities.

Review of Records
?Include a brief summary of educational or medical records if available. Diagnoses and test scores are often particularly helpful, as they provide a baseline for comparison.

Mental Status and Behavioral Observations
?Use the Mental Status Exam form as a guide for your interview. This section can be written or dictated directly from this form.
General appearance: Particularly note unusual characteristics that may provide diagnostic information – neglected hygiene, usual dress or tattoos, or physical characteristics that may affect the person’s social interactions and abilities.
Attitude & general behavior: Describe the person’s interaction with you and attitude toward being tested and interviewed.
Mood and affect: Obtain a quote from the client regarding recent mood. Ask about any history of depression and anxiety. Note the range of the client’s affect. Ask about sleep and appetite, and inquire further about depressive or anxious symptoms if a particular disorder if suspected. See the symptom guide at the bottom of the MSE form. For instance, if PTSD were suspected, you would inquire about symptoms such as nightmares, flashbacks, and startle response.
Stream of mental activity: Most clients will be described as responding in a coherent and relevant fashion and speaking at a normal pace with 100% intelligibility. Note any deviations from this, including psychotic symptoms, slower or faster than normal speech, and problems with speech intelligibility. Note unusual speech content and inquire into delusional thinking (paranoid, reference, control, grandiosity) if psychosis is suspected.
Sensorium and orientation: You will describe most clients as alert and aware of their surroundings; note any deviations from this. Orientation includes awareness of elements such as person, place, time and situation. Do not say the client was “oriented times three” as the meaning of this is not always consistent and clear. Do report the questions you asked and the client’s responses. For instance, “The client reported the current day of the week as Saturday rather than Monday.”
Memory. Use simple tests to assess the client’s long- and short-term memory and report the results of those tests. A useful test of short-term memory is to list three objects, have the client repeat them back, and then ask the client to recall them after five minutes have passed.
Fund of information. Two or three questions will give a rough index of the client’s general knowledge. Easy (mental retardation suspected): “How many legs on a dog?” or “Where is your nose?”, Average: “How many days in a year?”, Above average: “What is the boiling temperature of water?”
Concentration and attention: Rate the client’s ability to attend to instructions and task persistence. Simple concentration tasks are counting backwards from 20 or, for higher functioning clients, counting backwards from 100 by 7. Note the time required and number of errors. If ADHD is suspected, use the symptom guide at the bottom of the MSE form to inquire further about symptoms.
Perceptual distortions: Ask about any history of auditory or visual hallucinations and determine if they were associated with drug use or mood (mania or depression). If there were hallucinations, note their frequency, when they last occurred, and their content. Note if the client appears to be responding to hallucinations.
Judgment & insight. Use a simple, standard question to test judgment, such as “What would you do if your neighbor’s house were on fire?” Also, note any history that would indicate impaired judgment, such as arrests or job dismissals. Insight is whether the client has an accurate understanding of his or her mental health status. If there are mental health problems, a client with good insight attributes symptoms to these problems, and is aware of the need for treatment. For instance, a man diagnosed as schizophrenic would demonstrate good insight if he understands that his auditory hallucinations are caused by his illness and that psychiatric medication would help. An alcoholic demonstrates good insight if she admits her illness and recognizes the need to attend AA or other treatment.

Test Results:

WAIS-IV

Index Scores
Verbal Comprehension 93
Perceptual Organization 109
Working Memory 115
Processing Speed 99
Full Scale 103

Verbal Subtest Scaled Score
Vocabulary 9
Similarities 7
Information 10
(Comprehension) 12
Arithmetic 11
Digit Span 16
(Letter Numbering Sequencing) 11

Performance Subtest Scaled Score
Block Design 12
Matrix Reasoning 11
Visual Puzzles 8
(Figure Weights) 12
(Picture Completion) 8
Coding (Digit Symbol) 8
Symbol Search 12

When discussing the WAIS-IV results, be sure to include a discussion of the Full Scale Intelligence Quotient (FSIQ), Verbal Comprehension Index (VCI) and Perceptual Reasoning Index (PRI), Working Memory Index (WMI) and Processing Speed Index. You will need to discuss the client’s strengths and weaknesses with regard to subtest variability.

Refer to the WAIS-IV PowerPoint and the sample report as a guide. Start with the FSIQ, indicate its percentile range and category (Low Average, Superior, etc.). If a change in functioning is suspected due to head injury or other problem, compare the FSIQ to estimated pre-morbid functioning.

Compare the VCI to the PRI, and indicate if they are significantly different. Briefly interpret this comparison. If they are not significantly different you can say, “The VCI and PRI were not significantly different from each other, reflecting about equal facility with tasks requiring words as with tasks requiring non-verbal reasoning and performance.” If they are significantly different, indicate why you think this is. Is it consistent with a suspected diagnosis? Does it reflect cultural differences or a physical impairment?

WRAT-IV
Subtest Standard Score
Word Reading 93
Sentence Completion 98
Spelling 89
Math Computation 95

When discussing the WRAT4 results, be sure to include a discussion of the WRAT4 scores. Present the Standard Scores and Percentile ranks for each subtest of the WRAT4 (Word Reading, Spelling, Sentence Comprehension, Math Computation). You also want to talk about scores that are out of the normal range and what that might suggest. It is helpful to give examples of the client’s abilities, particularly on Math Computation (i.e., “able to perform arithmetic operations with whole numbers, but unable to work with decimals or fractions”). If a WRAT4 subtest differs significantly from IQ (at least 20 points lower), a diagnosis of learning disorder is likely, unless you feel that the difference is better explained by other factors.

See Attached file for MMPI-2 and MCMI-III protocols.
When discussing the MMPI-2 results, be sure to include a discussion of the validity scales (you can refer to your text for further guidance). Then interpret/discuss the clinical scales that are clinically significant, which are a T-score of 65 or greater. Your text and the powerpoint of the MMPI-2 (found under the course resources tab) list interpretive paragraphs of such scores.

When discussing the MCMI-III results, be sure to include a discussion of the validity scales, which can be assessed by noting the pattern of scores of the validity indicators (you can refer to your text for further guidance). Then interpret/discuss the Personality Disorder Scales that are clinically significant. Note that a BR score of 75-84 suggests the syndrome or pattern is present, whereas scores of 85 or above indicate that it is prominent. Next, interpret/discuss the Clinical Syndrome Scales. Your text lists interpretive paragraphs of such scores.

Diagnostic Impressions
?Provide a five-axis DSM-IV-TR diagnosis. Your Axis I and Axis II diagnoses should be clearly supported by the material you have presented to this point. It is possible to have no diagnosis on Axis I or Axis II, in which case this should be reported. Try to avoid Axis I diagnoses which are “deferred” or “provisional.” Your assessment is very likely the most thorough psychodiagnostic procedure the client will ever undergo, so it is important that you come to a decision and not expect that another clinician will be better able to do this.

Axis I: This axis includes all mental health diagnoses except personality disorders and mental retardation.
Axis II: Personality disorders and mental retardation should be diagnosed on this axis.
Axis III: This axis includes non-psychiatric medical conditions that are relevant to the treatment and management of the psychiatric condition. It might be that this condition needs to be considered in order to safely prescribe psychotropic medication (seizure disorder or impaired liver function), this condition causes distress due to pain, disability, or mortality (terminal cancer), or the condition directly causes mental health symptoms (brain injury). You will not be making this diagnosis yourself, since it is outside of your scope of practice. Therefore, you should note the source of your information, i.e., “by history,” “by client report.” You can also write “Diagnosis deferred to appropriate medical specialist.”
Axis IV: Indicate psychosocial stressors.
Axis V: Give a GAF score, based on the rating scale in the DSM-IV-TR.