Motivational Interviewing and Clinical Psychiatry

Objectives: Our objectives were as follows: 1) to survey the literature on motivational interviewing (MI), “a client-centered yet directive method for enhancing intrinsic motivation to change by exploring and resolving client ambivalence” and a well-established method of brief intervention, especially in the field of addictions treatment; 2) to review hypotheses about its mode of action; and 3) to discuss its possible impact on clinical psychiatry, in particular, on teaching communications skills. Method: Literature reviews and metaanalyses of numerous clinical trials of MI for addictions treatment have already been published and are briefly summarized. So far, no literature survey exists for MI applied to psychiatric patients. This review is limited to a synthesis of the articles relevant to psychiatry and to comments based on our team's experiences with MI. Results: There is no evidence that MI achieves better results than other established techniques for treating addictions; it may sim