The Psychiatric Interview: a Guide to History Taking and the Mental State Examination By Saxby Pridmore. Australia and The Netherlands: Harwood Academic Publishers. 2000. 160 pp. £14.00(pb). £25(hb). ISBN: 90-5823-106-2.

This book is initially attractive because of its succinct approach to the psychiatric interview. However, it is because of its brevity that it does not do the subject adequate justice. One of the book's aims is to offer practical advice to clinicians conducting diagnostic interviews; particularly how to phrase difficult questions. It is a personal matter as to what one considers are difficult areas to explore, but the book does not really achieve this aim. However, some of its descriptive definitions of key phenomenological terms are beautifully illustrated by examples from patients. These illustrations certainly bring the subject alive and arouse one's interest.

The book consists of a chapter on the history and a separate chapter for each of the sub-sections of the mental state, with supplementary chapters on intelligence, rapport and tests of cognition. This structure is basic and familiar to clinicians but commentary on the order is lacking. The introductory chapter provides a brief overview of classification of mental health disorders and the biopsychosocial model, but without detailing the potential pitfalls and controversial issues.

It is perhaps the history chapter that caused most concern. For example, the section on the history of the presenting complaint informs the reader that the breadth of the history should be explored, but not what to target in order to achieve this. The section on the sexual history is amusingly phrased and is rather entertaining as a result. Unfortunately, however, it does not suggest how to appropriately phrase questions that cover issues such as ‘has the patient reproduced?’. The succinct approach presented in this book is therefore probably more suitable for students of medicine, nursing and social services rather than mental health professionals.

The chapters on the mental state examination vary in quality. Of particular note, the chapter on thoughts is reasonably comprehensive and provides a good starting point for this often difficult part of the mental state examination. The chapter on rapport provides an interesting description but makes no comment on how to engage the patient.

Subsequent editions of this book would benefit from more detail on transcultural issues and differentiation between diagnoses, as well as the use of summary boxes within each chapter.