ABSTRACT
Most diagnostic assessments will be carried out by psychiatrists and clinical psychologists who are trained to administer them and skilled in interpreting the results. Such assessments will involve psychomotor, personality, neuropsychological and behavioural testing. It is known that styles of communication changes occur when with different people and in different environmental settings, for example, on the ward, in a work area, in a social setting or a formal psychiatric interview. Computers are becoming increasingly popular as a means of assessing the abilities and deficits of those suffering from mental illness. A pure-tone audiometric assessment is a helpful addition to psychiatric assessments although results of formal audiological testing with patients experiencing paranoid feelings may be unreliable. Neurotic disorders is a global term used to cover minor psychiatric conditions such as anxiety, depression, and obsessional and phobic neuroses. The psychoses are considered to be the major mental illnesses and include organic psychoses, drug psychoses, the major affective disorders, schizophrenia and paranoid states.
