Ambulatory assessment in clinical psychology and psychiatry

作者：Wilhelm Peter^*; Perrez Meinrad

来源：Zeitschrift für Psychiatrie, Psychologie und Psychotherapie, 2008, 56(3): 169-179.

DOI：10.1024/1661-4747.56.3.169

• ambulatory monitoring
• ecological momentary assessment
• electronic diary
• computer-assisted-therapy
• psychophysiology
• actigraphy

Assessment in clinical psychology and psychiatry relies to a large extend on retrospective self-reports. However, such self-reports are impaired by recall biases and are not appropriate for assessing short term changes of behavior across contexts and over time. Ambulatory Assessment refers to different diagnostic methods, which have in common that they capture people's behavior and experience in their usual daily life, without or with only minimal latency. Ambulatory Assessment methods avoid recall biases and provide detailed information about symptoms, their antecedents and consequences in the natural context of patients' daily life. This article gives an overview over current Ambulatory Assessment methods that are valuable for research, clinical diagnostic and psychotherapy. We introduce electronic diaries, behavior monitoring ( recording of physical movement, posture, and speech activity), psychophysiological monitoring, and methods to record features of the physical and social environment. In addition, we review ambulatory feedback and expert systems. Finally, we discuss the limits and potentials of Ambulatory Assessment in clinical psychology and psychiatry.

• 出版日期2008