Neuropsychological Assessment In Clinical Practice

Neuropsychological Assessment in Clinical Practice A Guide to Test Interpretation and Integration Written with the graduate student and practicing clinician in mind, this book covers today's most important issues in neuropsychological assessment, including: * Strategies for interviewing and interpretive guidelines to the most frequently used assessment instruments * Instructions for using test results to develop treatment and case plans * WISC-III, WAIS-III, WMS III, Halstead-Reitan, Luria Nebraska, and additional tests organized according to various functional domains * Principles, guidelines, and examples of how to write problem-oriented, effective neuropsychological reports Praise for Gary Groth-Marnat's Handbook of Psychological Assessment, Third Edition "A commendable volume in which the author condenses information, normally in several locations, into one reading." -Contemporary Psychology "The general purpose of this handbook is to provide a reference and instructional guide for professionals and students who are conducting psychological assessments. This purpose has been splendidly realized by Groth-Marnat, who has combined current scientific and clinical understanding and clear writing with an excellent sense of organization." -Psychology

Practical and comprehensive, this is the first book to focus on noncredible performance in clinical contexts. Experts in the field discuss the varied causes of invalidity, describe how to efficiently incorporate validity tests into clinical evaluations, and provide direction on how to proceed when noncredible responding is detected. Thoughtful, ethical guidance is given for offering patient feedback and writing effective reports. Population-specific chapters cover validity assessment with military personnel; children; and individuals with dementia, psychiatric disorders, mild traumatic brain injury, academic disability, and other concerns. The concluding chapter describes how to appropriately engage in legal proceedings if a clinical case becomes forensic. Case examples and sample reports enhance the book's utility.

The Compendium is an essential guidebook for selecting the right test for specific clinical situations and for helping clinicians make empirically supported test interpretations. BL Revised and updated BL Over 85 test reviews of well-known neuropsychological tests and scales for adults BL Includes tests of premorbid estimation, dementia screening, IQ, attention, executive functioning, memory, language, visuospatial skills, sensory function, motor skills, performance validity, and symptom validity BL Covers basic and advanced aspects of neuropsychological assessment including psychometric principles, reliability, test validity, and performance/symptom validity testing

Neuropsychological assessment is a difficult and complicated process. Often, experienced clinicians as well as trainees and students gloss over fundamental problems or fail to consider potential sources of error. Since formal test data on the surface appear unambiguous and objective, they may fall into the habit of overemphasizing tests and their scores and underemphasizing all the factors that affect the validity, reliability, and interpretability of test data. But interpretation is far from straightforward, and a pragmatic application of assessment results requires attention to a multitude of issues. This long-awaited, updated, and greatly expanded second edition of the Clinician's Guide to Neuropsychological Assessment, like the first, focuses on the clinical practice of neuropsychology. Orienting readers to the entire multitude of issues, it guides them step by step through evaluation and helps them avoid common misconceptions, mistakes, and methodological pitfalls. It is divided into three sections: fundamental elements of the assessment process; special issues, settings, and populations; and new approaches and methodologies. The authors, all of whom are actively engaged in the clinical practice of neuropsychological assessment, as well as in teaching and research, do an outstanding job of integrating the academic and the practical. The Clinician's Guide to Neuropsychological Assessment, Second Edition will be welcomed as a text for graduate courses but also as an invaluable hands-on handbook for interns, postdoctoral fellows, and experienced neuropsychologists alike. No other book offers its combination of breadth across batteries and approaches, depth, and practicality.

One of the challenges the field of clinical neuropsychology faces is to develop an assessment process that is relevant and responsive to the needs of patients. Indeed, it has been suggested that the survival of neuropsychology as a clinical discipline may be threatened due to an overemphasis on diagnosing cognitive deficits as opposed to developing methods that meet patients’ needs. One way to meet this need is for psychologists to extend their services by developing clinical interventions that contribute to enhancing patients’ cognitive and emotional well-being. Providing feedback from the results of neuropsychological tests is one method suggested as a way to enhance patient care and satisfaction with the assessment process while providing a link between clinical assessment and therapeutic interventions. In current practice, providing feedback to patients about the results of neuropsychological assessments has been considered an optional procedure by clinicians and thus received little attention in the literature. Yet there is evidence that when feedback is provided to patients the effects are overwhelmingly positive. Feedback provides a bridge between assessment and treatment by facilitating the development of applicable treatment plans. There is no agreed upon conceptual framework for providing feedback from neuropsychological assessment, although researchers have made recommendations. However, these recommendations have done little to affect clinical practice and training despite the fact that including patient-oriented feedback enhances the likelihood that neuropsychological assessment will remain a relevant and important component of patient care. The purpose of this proposed book is to first describe developments in methods of neuropsychological assessment feedback that involve active collaboration with patients in an open exchange of information and results. Second, we will present a comprehensive model for conducting neuropsychological assessment feedback. The authors of this book are expert clinical practitioners and academic researchers who are at the forefront of the development and implementation of Collaborative Therapeutic Neuropsychological Assessment methods. Table of contents follows.

Evidence-based practice has become the benchmark for quality in healthcare and builds on rules of evidence that have been developed in psychology and other health-care disciplines over many decades. This volume aims to provide clinical neuropsychologists with a practical and approachable reference for skills in evidence-based practice to improve the scientific status of patient care. The core skills involve techniques in critical appraisal of published diagnostic-validity or treatment studies. Critical appraisal skills assist any clinician to evaluate the scientific status of any published study, to identify the patient-relevance of studies with good scientific status, and to calculate individual patient-probability estimates of diagnosis or treatment outcome to guide practice. Initial chapters in this volume review fundamental concepts of construct validity relevant to the assessment of psychopathology and cognitive abilities in neuropsychological populations. These chapters also summarize exciting contemporary development in the theories of personality and psychopathology, and cognitive ability, showing a convergence of theoretical and clinical research to guide clinical practice. Conceptual skills in interpreting construct validity of neuropsychological tests are described in detail in this volume. In addition, a non-mathematical description of the concepts of test score reliability and the neglected topic of interval estimation for individual assessment is provided. As an extension of the concepts of reliability, reliable change indexes are reviewed and the implication of impact on evidence-based practice of test scores reliability and reliable change are described to guide clinicians in their interpretation of test results on single or repeated assessments. Written by some of the foremost experts in the field of clinical neuropsychology and with practical and concrete examples throughout, this volume shows how evidence-based practice is enhanced by reference to good theory, strong construct validity, and better test score reliability.

A Compendium of Neuropsychological Tests, Fourth Edition is one of the most well-established reference texts in neuropsychology. This newly-revised, updated, and expanded fourth edition provides a comprehensive overview of essential aspects of neuropsychological practice along with 100 test reviews of well-known neuropsychological tests for adults. The aim of the Compendium is to provide a comprehensive yet practical overview of the state of the field while also summarizing the evidence on the theoretical background, norms, reliability, and validity of commonly-used neuropsychological tests. Based on extensive review of the clinical and research literature in neuropsychology, neurology, and related disciplines, its comprehensive critical reviews of common neuropsychological tests and standardized scales include tests for premorbid estimation, dementia screening, IQ, attention, executive functioning, memory, language, visuospatial skills, sensory function, motor skills, performance validity, and symptom validity. Tables within each test review summarize important features of each test, highlight aspects of each normative dataset, and provide an overview of psychometric properties. This essential reference text also covers basic and advanced aspects of neuropsychological assessment with chapters on psychometric concepts and principles, reliability in neuropsychology, theoretical models of test validity, and an overview of critical concepts pertaining to performance and symptom validity testing and malingering. Of interest to neuropsychologists, clinical psychologists, educational psychologists, neurologists, and psychiatrists as well as trainees in these areas, this volume will aid practitioners in gaining a deeper understanding of fundamental assessment concepts in neuropsychology while also serving as an essential guidebook for selecting the right test for specific clinical situations and for helping clinicians make empirically-supported test interpretations.

Methodology in Neuropsychological Assessment: An Interpretative Approach to Guide Clinical Practice provides practical and methodological guidance for neuropsychologists working with people with brain lesions or brain dysfunctions. The textbook underlines the principles that can be used to guide clinicians in recognizing and interpreting signs and symptoms while enabling a complete neuropsychological assessment through a series of well-defined steps. The text provides a detailed methodological approach towards neuropsychological tools, with guidance on how to select the right test and how to interpret the outcome, which can act as a primer for a clinician through every step of the assessment in a coherent and reasoned way. The textbook presents an exhaustive discussion of the varied tools that a clinician can employ to complete a rigorous and consistent neuropsychological assessment. It guides the reader from the first step of collecting the personal history of the examinee – the anamnesis – to the selection of suitable psychometric tests and scoring, which is accordingly integrated to formulate the neuropsychological diagnosis and write up the neuropsychological report. Chapters also include coverage of the neuropsychological interview with the examinee and their family and the probability of identifying a disorder with a neuropsychological assessment. The authors have further included a series of detailed and explanatory clinical cases from their experience to expand upon the evaluation process. The textbook is valuable reading for students in clinical neuropsychology who are learning to carry out neuropsychological evaluations as well as clinicians who are seeking to develop a more comprehensive approach towards performing a thorough neuropsychological assessment.