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Rating: 
Summary: checklist focussed
Review: I bought this book in the search for a small gem on interview technique. This one is perhaps semi-precious.
Whilst this tiny text has been praised in other reviews here as a tool for the beginner trying to construct something of a skeletal framework to their interview technique, to me it sports three significant drawbacks for the new player.
Firstly, it is diagnosis based, rather than presentation based. Undergraduates and clinicians alike are time and again faced with the reality that the problems of patients, particularly at first presentation, not uncommonly present with diagnostic uncertainty that is not resolved even at the end of the first interview. By analogy, I would expect significant difficulty trying to approach clinical medicine as a medical student from the end point of clasification and working backwards.
Secondly, the emphasis in this book is very much on directive interviewing, typically by closed questioning. This approach puts the emphasis on content at the risk of missing out on valuable clinical information about the form of what is being said.
Thirdly, and to me most significantly, the book misses an opportunity to have a devoted section on assessment of risk in its many forms.
Taking the approach of this book alone, the newcomer without a background in mental health might thus feel limited in scope to elicit, understand and formulate what information is presented to them, let alone engage the person(s) in front of them.
A section on high yield interviewing of carers, relatives, colleagues from other disciplines and police would have strengthened the book too, as would approaches to interviewing in different contexts, such as the hospital ward, emergency room, primary care outpatient office etc.
On a positive note, this book does canvas a large volume of concrete screening questions concerning many clinical entities as viewed through the eyes of DSM nosology, particularly given its size and low cost. It thus has value to the time conscious undergraduate on a budget wishing to read a wide ranging introduction to the subject at the beginning of their term or cramming prior to exams.
Rating: 
Summary: A quick handy guide
Review: I felt that this little pocket guide was really easy to read and helpful, especially when I needed to specify questions for certain interviewing sessions with clients. I would recommend it to anyone who needs a little extra help with difficult clients. Great for Students!
Rating: 
Summary: A handy-dandy little notebook.
Review: This interview guide is the perfect companion to the novice practitioner. Zimmerman has condensed the interview sequence of the major disorders so that you can logically follow, and intentionally interview a client. This book is a little pricey for its size, but the content is A-1.
Rating: 
Summary: helpful to anyone trying to diagnose mental illness
Review: This is a highly practical reminder book for conducting mental illness diagnosis interviews. It is well-written and well-organized. Probably will be most useful for medical students and psychiatry residents, but may also help young and possibly even experienced psychiatrists. Avery Z. Conner, author of "Fevers of the Mind".
Rating:
Summary: helpful to anyone trying to diagnose mental illness
Review: This is a highly practical reminder book for conducting mental illness diagnosis interviews. It is well-written and well-organized. Probably will be most useful for medical students and psychiatry residents, but may also help young and possibly even experienced psychiatrists. Avery Z. Conner, author of "Fevers of the Mind".
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