Psychosocial Tools Used in Health Assessments

Psychosocial testing as an aid to healthcare assessment serves a number of significant functions. First, it can let doctors know whether a major surgery would be safe or inadvisable. In addition, it can help identify problems that might require further testing in order to make a correct diagnosis. These tests can also serve to predict positive or negative medical outcomes.

Bariatric Surgery Readiness Assessment

• The primary focus of the Bariatric Readiness Assessment is to test a patient's readiness for life-altering bariatric surgery. Bariatric surgery reduces the size of the patient's stomach to combat obesity. Testing can help the doctor determine whether the patient will physically, psychologically and emotionally recover from the surgery. In addition, the assessment seeks to find out if the patient's long-term habits will prevent the surgery from being successful. This test also determines whether the patient has adequate support systems in place, possible stressors that could hinder the surgery and the patient's overall coping skills. Any factors on the test that predict failed surgery outcomes indicate a need for further assessment.

Antenatal Psychosocial Health Assessment Tool (ALPHA)

• This tool assists in detecting the chances of pregnant women developing postpartum depression. Postpartum depression can become an exceptionally dangerous health condition if left undetected or untreated. General questions are asked about family history and personal history with depression in order to determine whether providing extra care to combat the risk for depression during and after the pregnancy is necessary. Mild forms of depression left untreated could lead to a more severe form of the disorder, which is called postpartum psychosis. In this case, the imbalance is severe enough to cause delusions and hallucinations and interfere with psychological and social functioning at home, at work or in the community.

The Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT)

• The Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test is a brief test that screens for possible alcohol problems that negatively affect life functioning. Life functioning can include the social and psychological energies needed to carry out daily tasks. Excessive drinking in monthly binges or on a daily basis, no matter how much, can indicate that a problem with alcohol exists. This test is used by mental health workers as well as doctors to screen for possible complications before surgery or contradictions with medications that have been prescribed.

The Beck Depression Inventory Fast Screen (BDI-FS)

• The Beck Depression Inventory is used to test for depression in patients with chronic pain syndromes or medical illness. It is predominantly used for patients who have been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis because of the emotionally debilitating nature of the disease. This inventory asks seven questions concerning a patient's feelings of self-confidence, perceived failures, mental outlook, thoughts of suicide and ability to feel enjoyment from things they once found pleasurable. A Likert scale is used, with answers starting at "little to none" and going to "frequently."

The SF-36

• This psychosocial assessment tool helps to measure a patient's perceived quality of life with consideration to health conditions and disease. It seeks to discover how well the patient is doing in regard to employment, hobbies, physical functioning, family and social life. This test only measures the patient's perceptions, which can be quite different from reality. It can be used in conjunction with cognitive behavioral therapy in order to help redefine negative perceptions. It also brings to light treatable medical complaints that might not have been reported before that point.