Brief explanation of three important components of the psychiatric interview and why you consider these elements important.

The psychiatric interview is the most important element in the evaluation and care of persons with mental illness, a major purpose of the initial psychiatric interview is to obtain information that will establish a criteria-based diagnosis (Sadock et al., 2017). As noted by Sadock et al. (2017), the psychiatric history and the mental status evaluation are the two major components of the psychiatric interview. In my opinion, the three crucial elements of the psychiatric interview are: the mental status exam, the developmental and social history, and the family history. According to Sadock et al. (2017), the mental status exam (MSE) is crucial since it aims to examine all facets of mental functioning and identifies any indications of the signs and symptoms of mental disease. The MSE provides a snapshot of the patient's mental state at the time of the interview and can be compared and used to track changes over time during follow up visits (Sadock et al., 2017).