Neuropsychological Evaluation
Neuropsychological evaluation is a method of obtaining valuable information about a person’s cognitive and emotional functioning. While neuroimaging techniques such as MRI have improved physicians’ ability to identify brain abnormalities, MRIs do not say much about a patient’s current level of functioning. Neuropsychological Evaluations typically involve question-answer, paper-pencil, and hands-on tasks to assess abilities in the areas of attention, information processing speed, language fluency, learning and memory, and problem solving. A trained neuropsychologist can use the information acquired from a comprehensive neuropsychological evaluation to generate a profile of the individual’s cognitive strengths and weaknesses, and determines to what extent brain dysfunction has affected the person’s ability to function in the community, in the workplace, and in the home. Other circumstances in which a neuropsychological evaluation may be helpful is to assist physicians with differential diagnosis, provide data to guide medical and legal decisions, monitor cognitive changes related to neurodegenerative illnesses (such as Alzheimer’s disease), monitor response to certain therapies, and answer questions regarding the clients ability to return to work and need for supervised living arrangements.
Our Neuropsychological Evaluations Include:
Review of medical records and related collateral information
Clinical Interview with Patient (and family member if possible)
Neuropsychological test battery (typical domains tested)
- General Intellectual Ability
- Attention
- Information processing speed
- Language functioning
- Verbal and Visual Memory
- Executive functions
- Problem Solving
- Abstraction
- Suppressing distractions
- Motor & Sensory functions
- Motor & Sensory functions
- Emotional status
Integrative Report
Feedback Counseling Session
Receiving Feedback
To Our Referring Physicians:
Our neuropsychologists can work closely with referring physicians (including primary care physicians, PM&R, neurologists, neurosurgeons and psychiatrists) and provide them with a detailed report of the assessment results that support a clearly stated diagnostic opinion and most importantly recommendations to assist with their treatment. Our reports are relatively comprehensive, in that they give an account of a patient’s medical, psychiatric, educational, vocational, and social history; however, this is ultimately summarized into a cohesive statement that answers the questions/concerns of the referring physician. Because of the importance of receiving timely results of a neuropsychological evaluation, The Neuropsychology & Counseling Center can deliver comprehensive reports to physicians within 7 to 10 days of the evaluation.
To Our Patients and Their Families:
Feedback Counseling. Following the neuropsychological evaluation, we meet with the patient and their families to explain the results of the evaluation and their implications in an honest and caring manner. Many times we have good news, other times we have bad news. Our neuropsychologist will convey the results with dignity and respect, as our goal is to be an advocate for our clients. Our neuropsychologists also use this opportunity to discuss the recommendations we make in as much detail as the patient/family desires, and counsel them to incorporate these recommendations into the patient’s life. These feedback sessions typically last 30 minutes; however, additional time for feedback counseling can be arranged. Given the importance of delivering customized meaningful recommendations that the patient can incorporate into their life, feedback counseling sessions are usually scheduled to occur 14 days after the evaluation.