How can Neuropsychological Evaluations help your clients and cases?

• Determine whether your client’s subjective cognitive complaints can be identified in an objective evaluation.
• Identify the extent of cognitive difficulties and treatment recommendations.
• Estimate the extent of cognitive decline through comparing current functions to premorbid estimates of functioning.
• Determine the validity of a client’s complaints through tests of effort and malingering.
• In civil cases, this may help a plaintiff’s cognitive difficulties be taken more seriously or help a  defendant identify symptom exaggeration.
• In criminal cases, this may be important in a variety of ways that may include:
• assistance in determining a defendant’s  competency to stand trial
• providing additional information about the capacity to appreciate the criminal nature of an act or to inhibit such acts.

How do I choose a Clinical Neuropsychologist and are there other professionals more appropriate to a forensic setting?

• You may click here to find a qualified neuropsychologist. Make sure you choose a ABPP Board Certified Neuropsychologist.
• ONLY a Clinical Neuropsychologist is competent to use neuropsychological tests.
• While a neurologist, psychiatrist, or other physician may be well qualified within their area of expertise, they are not qualified to interpret a neuropsychological test battery.
• The advantage of using a neuropsychologist is that they are experts at using objective tests to evaluate cognitive functions. Thus, their conclusions are based more on verifiable test data and less on their opinion.