Brain injuries can have a detrimental impact on an individual’s cognitive, emotional, and Behavioral functioning. A comprehensive neuropsychological evaluation can help assess the effects of a brain injury in order to avoid cognitive impairment such as problems following directions or concentrating, emotional problems with mood swings, and even personality changes.
What Is a Neuropsychological Evaluation?
What is a neuropsychological evaluation? It is a type of test to assess the way a person’s brain functions and the way that function impacts cognition, behavior, and emotional function.
The Importance of Neuropsychological Evaluations for Brain Injuries
If you have suffered from a brain injury, a neuropsychological evaluation for adults or neuropsychological evaluations for children can help your mental health provider, your doctor, or even your family understand the impact that your brain injury has had.
Understanding Brain Function Post-Injury
With a comprehensive neuropsychological evaluation, you can determine whether a brain injury has had an impact on your executive function, your memory, your intelligence, your language, and much more. These assessments are essential to creating a treatment plan based on the impact that the brain injury has had.
Tailoring Treatment Plans
The results from a neuropsychological test can help predict future health based on the current impact of a brain injury and more importantly, what type of treatment needs to be done in order to circumvent long-term negative health impacts.
Consider this:
Thomas suffered a brain injury after a car accident. Following his neuropsychological evaluation for adults, it was determined that his motor skills assessment was somewhat limited, so his ability to use his hands and his feet was not what it used to be.
The results of his neuropsychological evaluation also determined that he had issues with his executive functions, which was causing problems with planning and executing things like what he would do for the day or how he would get a task done. He also struggled with short-term memory problems.
With this information, Thomas could work with a team of professionals for physical rehabilitation as well as cognitive rehabilitation to help overcome the issues with his executive function.
Monitoring Progress
With a brain injury, changes can develop over time which is why monitoring the progress made from a treatment is so important. After a neuropsychological evaluation and treatment plan, modifications might need to be made as older symptoms are resolved in new symptoms present.
Legal and Insurance Implications
There are legal and insurance applications here as well. For example, with Thomas, getting a comprehensive neuropsychological evaluation would be able to determine a link between his problems with brain function and the brain injury caused by the insurance provider’s client. With monitoring, continued assessments could determine the impact of certain treatments to make sure that the insurance company was covering things related to the car accident.
Key Cognitive Areas Assessed in a Comprehensive Neuropsychological Evaluation
There are several key cognitive areas that get assessed in a comprehensive neuropsychological evaluation. These types of evaluations can include different scoring methods on standardized tests, clinical tests, even interviews.
Memory and Learning
Memory tests can determine not just how well someone remembers information, but how well their declarative and non declarative memory function.
Attention and Concentration
Attention and concentration can be assessed with different cognitive tests that focus on attention, problem solving and memory recall.
Executive Functioning
Executive function tests can assess things like memory particularly short-term memory, problem solving, selective attention, inhibition controls, and planning.
Language and Communication
Language and communication skills tests can examine how thoroughly someone is able to communicate with language, such as reading, writing, and speaking.
Visuospatial and Motor Skills
Visuospatial and motor skills can be tested to determine how well an individual can still use their hands and feet.
Neuropsychological Evaluation for Adults with Brain Injuries
Adults who have brain injuries should consider neuropsychological evaluations to help with treatment planning, workplace accommodations, and even compensation.
Medical professionals can provide comprehensive neuropsychological evaluations for adults that offer information necessary for doctors to create a more effective treatment plan, for an office space to identify any potential limitations that have to be worked around now, or for an individual like Thomas to get the right type of compensation from an insurance provider.
That said, there are several other reasons why an adult might consider getting a neuropsychological evaluation on a regular basis.
- Someone who is worried about having memory deterioration not just from a brain injury but from other conditions like Alzheimer’s can use these types of tests to track the progression of brain changes
- Someone who is worried about the decline in their mental skills, whether because of age, a previous brain injury, or something else, can opt for neuropsychological evaluations that test whether or not the brain is functioning properly
How Neuropsychological Evaluations Guide Treatment and Rehabilitation
A neuropsychological evaluation brings with it many benefits, primarily being able to figure out the way in which a brain injury has affected an individual or their neurological function so that a proper cognitive rehabilitation plan can be created.
Consider Thomas once more. If he had an unexplained personality change, which presented as problems managing bills, taking care of himself, and even communicating in his personal relationships, understanding the link between this personality change and the brain injury from his car accident would go a long way toward Thomas accessing the right type of emotional support and psychotherapy that both he and his family might need. And this could all be achieved with a proper evaluation.
The best treatment plan is a multidisciplinary treatment plan, which can only be achieved by a direct understanding of how severe the condition is and whether or not it will recover without additional support. A neuropsychological test can help those who have suffered from a brain injury in this regard.
Conclusion
Overall, neuropsychological evaluations play an essential role in assessing brain injuries. The sooner a neuropsychological evaluation is completed, the more accurate the assessment will be. Moreover, an early and comprehensive neuropsychological evaluation can help improve outcomes for individuals with brain injuries.