Assessing the victimized psychiatric patient

Psychiatric patients who have experienced violence or victimization usually do not report these traumatic events to clinicians spontaneously, although they may be relevant to the patients' current problems. Therefore, inquiry about such experiences should be part of the clinical assessment of patients who are refugees, crime victims, or military veterans or patients whose histories suggest traumatic events. The authors present a series of questions designed to facilitate discussion of traumatic events and to elicit clinical information that is relevant from both somatic and psychosocial perspectives.