The Psychiatric Interview: The Impact of the First Three Minutes
MYRON G. SANDIFER JR. M.D.1,
ANTHONY HORDERN M.D., M.R.C.P., D.P.M.2, , and
LINDA M. GREEN 3
1 Professor of psychiatry and associate dean for academic affairs, University of Kentucky Medical Center, Lexington, Ky. 40506
2 Consultant psychiatrist, King's College Hospital, Denmark Hill, London, England
3 Research associate, North Carolina Foundation for Mental Health Research, Inc., Dorothea Dix Hospital, Raleigh, N.C.
In a two-phase study of diagnostic decision making, psychiatrist observers viewed films of diagnostic interviews and recorded their comments and the symptoms they saw in the patients. Analysis of the results, in terms of the time at which conclusions and symptoms were reported, revealed that the first three minutes of observation have a significant, and sometimes apparently decisive, impact upon the final diagnostic decision.
