An effective psychiatric interview allows the clinician both to connect with a patient and to gather pertinent data. Although medical technology has advanced tremendously and has increased the amount of laboratory and neuroimaging information available to assist psychiatrists in making more accurate diagnoses and developing more specific treatment plans for patients, these tests cannot supplant the importance of gathering critical data via the traditional psychiatric interview. The psychiatric interview is the single most important method of arriving at an understanding of a patient who exhibits the signs and symptoms of a psychiatric illness (Scheiber 2003). Patients usually communicate the most important aspects of their illnesses to their physicians during the doctor–patient interview. The psychiatrist listens and then responds to the patient in an effort to understand the patient's problems in the context of the patient's culture and environment (MacKinnon and Yudofsky 1991; MacKinnon et al. 2006). The psychiatric interview is similar to the general medical interview in that both include the patient's chief complaint, history of present illness, past history, social and family history, and review of systems. However, the psychiatric interview differs from the traditional medical interview because the psychiatric interview also includes a more thorough examination of the patient's developmental history, including the patient's feelings about significant life events and exploration of the patient's significant interpersonal relationships, patterns of adaptation, and character traits (MacKinnon et al. 2006; Scheiber 2003). The psychiatric interview includes a formal examination of the patient's mental status as well.