​Anxiety and Mood Disorder Center

Neuropsychological assessments are carried out to assess the extent of impairment to a particular skill and to attempt to determine the area of the brain which may have been damaged following brain injury or neurological illness.  Aspects of cognitive functioning that are assessed typically include; orientation, new-learning/memory, intelligence, language, visuo-perception, and executive function.

The following are techniques used by psychiatrists to screen for certain types of brain damage:

History-Taking:

This includes gathering medical history of the patient and their family, presence or absence of developmental milestones, psychosocial history, and character, severity, and progress of any history of complaints. The psychologist can then gauge how to treat the patient and determine if there are any historical determinants for his or her behaviour.

Interviewing:

Psychologists use structured interviews in order to determine what kind of neurological problem the patient might be experiencing. There are a number of specific interviews, including the Short Portable Mental Status Questionnaire, Neuropsychological Impairment Scale, Patient’s Assessment of Own Functioning, and Structured Interview for the Diagnosis of Dementia.

Test-taking:

The scores on standardized tests taken by children is a strong predictor of future or current neuropsychological problems. Standardized tests allow psychologists to compare a child’s results with other children’s because it has the same components and is given in the same way. It is representative of the child’s behaviour and cognition. The results of a standardized test are only a tool used to discover if there is a disorder. Further testing is needed to officially diagnose the patient.

Intelligence Testing:

Testing one’s intelligence can also give a clue to whether there is a problem in the brain-behaviour connection.                              are the tests most often used to determine level of intelligence. The variety of scales available, the nature of the tasks, as well as a wide gap in verbal and performance scores can give clues to whether there is a learning disability or damage to a certain area of the brain.

Neuropsychological Assessment

The Wechsler Scales​​​