The Shut-Down Interview and Relationships -- The Medical Interview: The Opening Phase -- History of Present Illness -- Concluding Phase -- Family -- The Well-Child Visit -- Primary Care and Child Mental Health -- Sensitive Topics: Suicidality, Child Abuse, Sexuality, Substance Abuse -- Supporting Families Expressing Grief While Giving Bad News -- Challenging Patients -- Wandering Interviews -- Using Experiential Techniques to Teach Interviewing Skills -- Glossary of Interviewing Terms -- Appendices.

Clear and effective communication in a clinical context has enormous benefits, and especially in pediatrics, where assessing patients’ symptoms is more challenging. Clinicians who interview well gather extra data, to be sure, but also gain from a number of other positive outcomes, from happier patients to fewer law suits. The unique perspective on pediatric interviewing offered in this book reflects the author’s breadth of training and experience, which includes being a solo pediatric practitioner for ten years and completing a residency in psychiatry and child psychiatry. Currently associate professor of pediatrics at the Marshall University School of Medicine, Prof. Binder has taught pediatrics and interviewing to successive generations of medical students. His easy-to-read, compelling, and comprehensive guide outlines effective strategies for interviewing parents and children efficiently. Topics covered include engaging patients and families, efficiently and smoothly obtaining a history of present illness and making a good differential diagnosis, uncovering hidden agendas, collaborative discussion in diagnosis and treatment, practicing family oriented care, taking a full social history, and all other aspects of carrying out the pediatric interview. Offering clear, practical tips and a wide range of targeted case examples, this invaluable title seamlessly combines the biological and psychological aspects of patient care. Based on relationship theory, the underlying foundation of successful clinical interviewing and a major determinant of optimal diagnosis and treatment, this is an indispensable guide for all clinicians engaged in the care of children and adolescents.