Neuropsychology for Health Care Professionals and Attorneys

Book excerpt: Regardless of your specialty - physician, psychologist, nurse, rehabilitation specialist, or attorney -post-traumatic stress disorder cases and brain injury cases are arguably the most difficult to understand, treat, and evaluate. All of the tools you need are in the new Neuropsychology for Health Care Professionals and Attorneys, Second Edition. It contains An easy-to-understand description of the neuroanatomy of the brain Four chapters devoted to neurobehavioral disorders such as amnesia, attentional deficits, delirium, dementia, disorders of executive functions of the brain, electrical injury, hypoxic encephalopathy, neurotoxic encephalopathy, learning disorders, post-traumatic stress disorders, mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI), post-concussive syndrome, seizure disorders, and others A detailed description of neuropsychological assessment, including a critique of approximately 80 neuropsychological tests: their intended use, purpose, administration, sensitivity to brain damage, reliability, validity, strengths, and limitations How factors such as medical illness, medication, psychiatric disorders, stress, anxiety, culture, language, suboptimal motivation, and pre-existing neurological disorders can alter test performance Ways to determine whether the neuropsychological test results are consistent with brain damage or due to non-neurological factors A discussion of how the use of test norms can result in the misdiagnosis of brain damage A critical review of actual neuropsychological reports A glossary of neuropsychological and neurological terms