The Role Of The Neuropsychologist in Brain Injury Treatment

A victim of a traumatic brain injury or closed head injury often has a team of medical specialists to assist  in the recovery and rehabilitation.  Each member of the team has a different background, specialty, and purpose and it is the teamwork between them all that works best for the patient.

A neuropsychologist is not a physician in the strictest sense, considering that he is essentially a psychologist specializing in treating functional disorders of the brain as well as behavioral malfunctioning.

You cannot expect a neuropsychologist to order for the routine tests often demanded by other physicians like EEGs, MRIs, or CT scans. On the contrary a neuropsychologist prefers to conduct a series of written examinations followed by personal interviews with the brain-injured victim. This series of tests is often referred to as a testing ‘battery’.

What is the purpose of such a testing battery?   The tests are done with the sole purpose of identifying some of the critical functional aspects of the brain. This includes memory capacity both short and long term, abstract reasoning skills, attention span, ability to focus, executive functioning capacity, motor skills and other emotional and cognitive traits. Based on the results of such tests along with other medical information, the neuropsychologist is then in a position to comment regarding the severity of the brain injury, its most viable treatment procedure and also predict what the future holds for the patient.

Opinions and viewpoints of the neuropsychologist are given serious cognizance by the jury in case there is a lawsuit filed by the victim of a traumatic brain injury or his family. He is treated as an authority when it is a matter of establishing the severity of the brain injury. The test results often go a long way to ratify the permanence of the injury and confirm the victim’s inability to work ever in his life.

A neuropsychologist often doubles up as a counselor and a therapist to bring back the brain-injured patient as close  to his pre-injury state.  They often also often provide group counseling sessions and recommend other forms of important rehabilitation.  They are an essential part of the brain injury treatment and recovery team.

Related posts:

1. The Role Of The Neurologist in Brain Injury Treatment
2. Role Of The Psychiatrist In Brain Injury Treatment
3. SPECT Scans for Brain Injury Treatment
4. Traumatic Brain Injuries & Nurse Case Managers
5. Brain Injuries & Motorcycle Accidents

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BUCKFIRE & BUCKFIRE, P.C. is a Michigan personal injury law firm and is not representing any of the parties mentioned in this article at the time of the posting of the article. The information contained in this article is from online news sources and any perceived misstatements should be attributed to those sources as we did not complete any investigation of the accident. If you believe that the information is inaccurate and would like it changed or would like this post completely removed from the site, please let us know and we will do our best to promptly accommodate your request. We are very sensitive to these requests.

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