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Psychological testing often provides additional information that complements the psychiatric history and mental status exam.
Psychological tests characterize psychological symptoms, as well as describe personality and motivations.
Rorschach Test. Ink blots serve as stimuli for free associations; particularly helpful in psychodynamic formulation and assessment of defense mechanisms and ego boundaries.
Thematic Apperception Test (TAT). The patient is asked to consider pictures of people in a variety of situations, and is asked to make up a story for each card. This test provides information about needs, conflicts, defenses, fantasies, and interpersonal relationships.
Sentence Completion Test (SCT). Patients are asked to finish incomplete sentences, thereby revealing conscious associations. Provides insight into defenses, fears and preoccupations of the patient.
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI). A battery of questions assessing personality characteristics. Results are given in 10 scales.
Draw-a-Person Test (DAP). The patient is asked to draw a picture of a person, and then to draw a picture of a person of the opposite sex of the first drawing. The drawings are believed to represent how the patient relates to his environment, and the test may also be used as a screening exam for brain damage.
Neuropsychological tests assess cognitive abilities and can assist in characterizing impaired brain function.
Bender Gestalt Test. A test of visual-motor and spatial abilities, useful for children and adults.
Halstead-Reitan Battery and Luria-Nebraska Inventory
Standardized evaluation of brain functioning.
Assess expressive and receptive language, memory, intellectual reasoning and judgment, visual-motor function, sensory-perceptual function and motor function.
Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS). Intelligence test that measures verbal IQ, performance IQ, and full-scale IQ.
Wisconsin Card Sort