Key Things In Neuropsychological Assessment New York Doctors Consider

By Essie Osborn


Neuropsychological assessments are done by doctors for various specific reasons. Basically, the tests measure the level of mental functioning. These include things like; concentration, remembering, reasoning, planning, organizing, language and speech skills. It will therefore give a picture of your brain in the same manner an MRI or CT scan do. However, this image will be basically showing how the brain works. After a neuropsychological assessment New York doctors will now conclude on how to help the patient.

The assessment program will involve different tasks in most cases. The main aim of this is to try and get more definite results before a conclusion is made. Some doctors use computer programs in their evaluation while others simply use a pen and paper. All in all, it does not matter because the objective is normally the same. The patient will then be guided on how to go about with the tasks given. For example, a list of words may be read out and the task in this case will be to try and remember them.

When the evaluation is being undertaken, easier tasks are first given as the level of difficulty is increased slowly. There will however come a time when the patient cannot do it anymore. It is from this point that the doctor can now be able to measure the individual.

It is common for individuals not to perform their best the first time they do something. This is therefore taken into account when the assessment is being done. Assessors may ask the patient to go at various tasks more than one time while trying to measure the same thing. This is to mean that memory will be measured by more than one task. A more accurate and reliable outcome is therefore likely to be generated by doing so.

Some neuropsychological assessments take a considerable amount of time to finish, may be more than four hours. Nevertheless, at the end of it all, it will help your doctor in finding out how your brain damage is affecting your abilities. This is in relation to reasoning, concentrating, solving problems or even remembering.

These tests are in most cases administered by specialized psychologists. They need to have undergone some special training on how to do the tests before practicing it. This, therefore, means that you need to determine the qualifications of your psychologist before enrolling for his program.

After the doctor has received the results, he/she can make a conclusion and advise you on which way forward, either treatment or a rehabilitation program. When making the decision on whether the assessment should be done or not, medical professionals are normally guided by the kind of condition that one is suffering from. This is because there are some diseases which are more likely to result to brain damage. Such include; Alzheimer, AIDS, Stroke, Epilepsy, Brain Tumor, Multiple Sclerosis and Parkinson disease.

Sometimes the doctor can advise one to take the assessment when they have suffered some serious brain damage. Some of the things that can lead to this include; exposure to pollution, chemicals and poison. Also, there are things like drug abuse and alcohol abuse that can affect how the brain functions.




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