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Re: NEURO-PSYCH TESTS BEFORE OR AFTER

Posted by chicago77 on October 30, 2003, at 20:24:34

In reply to Re: NEURO-PSYCH TESTS BEFORE OR AFTER Me Three!, posted by dazedandconfused on October 27, 2003, at 9:04:42

> Excellent question! I too have wondered about this. My initial reaction would say to have the testing first, so that treatment could be more focused and accurate (perhaps). I would love to hear others thoughts though. There are some very experienced posters out there...

Woo-hoo... you found an "experienced poster"!! I actually used to work as a Pediatric Neuropsychology Technician for about a year and a half (and my undergrad is in psych and I'm working on my Master's to be a Physician Assistant... does that make me qualified?!). So, here's my perspective- neuropsych testing can be done at any stage of psychiatric disorders or treatment. Depression has cognitive effects for anyone suffering from this debilitating disorder. However, if your cognitive impairment is severe, the testing will be very important to find out the extent. Neuropsychologists are trained to correlate your clinical symptoms with the results of your testing. Typical tests involve intelligence, memory, language, attention, cognitive ability and personality/mood. These results are compiled to form a "big picture" of what's going on with you and decide on the best course of treatment (and for children, to decide if any modification should be made regarding their schooling). Ideally we would all be tested before any onset of psychiatric disorders to have a baseline of funtioning (compare this to something like EKG testing- it's best to have a normal study for comparison during a cardiac event). I hope this is enough information to at least understand the importance of neuropsych testing and realize that the interpretation will take into account your mental status. If you guys have any other specific questions, feel free to post. I will check back and answer to the best of my ability. As a side note, I believe that Dr. Bob works at University of Chicago, and they have an excellent neuropsych department. He might have some other thoughts that I didn't touch on re: neuropsych testing. Best of luck to all of you! One bit of advice... when you go in for testing, relax!! Being anxious will further inhibit your ability. You're not trying to "ace" the tests, you are trying to get an understanding of your cognitive funtioning so that you can treat the impairment.


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URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20031030/msgs/275103.html