Week Two - Neuropsychological Assessment & Diagnosis Flashcards
What is the most important reason to conduct an assessment?
The diagnose/decide on a clinical category
What initiates a psych assessment?
The referral
What should you research about the condition on the referral?
Behaviours
Physical limitations
Cognitive profile
Everyday functioning
Support services
Treatment
What/where should you gather information about a patient?
School Medical history Employment Family members (especially with people with serious conditions) Mental health history Prior assessment reports (if applicable)
What other information is very important/valuable to obtain?
Past radiology reports (CT and MRI).
What 4 things do we want to gather from a clinical interview?
History/clinical issues
Data
What was the person like beforehand
behaviour observation
What is Sensitivity in assessment?
The probability that a test correctly identifies a clinical category given they actually DO have it
True positive
What is Specificity in assessment?
The probability that the test correctly detects or classifies a normal performance - they do not have the condition
True negatives
Important first question to ask during interview?
“do you know why you are here” - allows us to see their level of insight into their difficulties
What do we need to consider when trying to optimise performance during testing?
Internal (eg anxiety) and external factors (eg place)
Tests that we use need to have?
Normative data
Extracted from a population
Standardisation
What do you need to follow to adhere to standard procedures?
Exact wording
Test materials
Time limits
Scoring rules
What is premorbid functioning? Why do we need to know it?
Functioning prior to condition
Gives insight into their decline levels and enables comparisons
How do we assess premorbid functioning?
Self-report (not reliable tho)
school/employment records
formal testing
What are the first aspects of intelligence to be impacted in brain injury?
Processing speed and working memory
What intellectual functioning is most preserved following injury to brain?
Verbal
What is confrontation naming?
The inability to name everYday objects
What are the two forms of apraxia?
IDEATIONAL:unable to plan movements related to interaction with objects
IDEOMOTOR: motor planning, mimicking
What do we test in assessments/tests?
Attention Language Motor functioning Visuospatial ability Learning and Memory Social cognition Executive functioning (sometimes not) Planning & problem solving Cognitive flexibility Inhibition Malingering
What are some forms of motor functioning tests?
Finger oscillation
Grip strength
Dexterity
Controlled oral word association test can help with what? (idea generation)
Differentiating frontal and temporal lobe damage
Someone with more frontal lobe damage is more likely to have difficulties in what fluency?
Letter fluency
Someone with more temporal lobe damage is more likely to have difficulties in what fluency?
sematic fluency
What is a Malingering test?
Test to see if someone is putting in their full effort
