neuro psychiatric evaluation - anyone had one?

[scaredycat]

Hi again,

I forgot to ask last time if anyone has had a neuro psych evaluation and what to expect? I'm having one in December.

Any experiences or info would be great!

 

[CQ:)]

Hi Scaredycat,

I see you are from Victoria, where are you having your neuropsychologist evaluation? The neuropsychologist will most likely test your memory & concentration skills.

I live in NSW but had brain surgery at the Austin hospital in Heidleberg last year. As part of my pre surgery tests I had to have a neuropsychologist evaluation before the surgery then another evaluation 3 months after surgery.
For me the 1st neuropsych appt involved the neuropsych getting a history of my epilepsy & how the epilepsy affected me. Then they did a series of tests mainly concentration & memory. My Mum was with me when the neuropsych got the history of my epilepsy but when I did the memory/concentration tests Mum had to go out of the room.
At my 2nd neuropsych evaluation the neuropsych did more memory tests to see if the surgery had affected my memory much.

I still keep in regular contact with my neuropsych through email & see her when I have to see the neurologist for my follow up appts.

 

[scaredycat]

Thanks so much for your reply. I'm having it done at the Royal Melbourne. I don't know if I have E yet, so it's to help with a diagnosis - I HOPE! So I can put a name to whatever this is and work out what to do about it!

 

[huskymom]

I had one done several years ago. It consisted of memory and visual test. The visual ones were they showed me a picture and I was supposed to tell them what was wrong with it. I swear, several of them, I didn't have a clue! There was a dot-to-dot, a bunch of regular type of questions, and timed stuff. The part that was especially frustrating for me was that if you got something wrong, they would tell you it was wrong, but never why it was wrong! The whole test took about 4 hours. Good luck to you!!

 

[Nakamova]

I had a neuropsych evaluation done a few years back. It was basically me and the psychologist in her office for about 3 hours, with her asking questions and giving me exercises to test memory encoding/recall, verbal conceptualization, visual reasoning, and manual dexterity. Some of the tests were timed. I made notes afterwards on the kinds of tests I had to do:

1. Recite back lists of numbers.
2. Recite back lists of numbers in reverse order.
3. Recite back a list of random words, then list them by category, then distinguish them from a second list. Recall them later in the session.
4. Recite back details of two different stories. Recall them later in the session.
5. Draw a complex shape shown in a picture. Then draw it from memory. Then distinguish it from 4 other similar drawings. Recalled later in session.
6. Math word problems (solve in head).
7. Word definitions.
8. Word pronunciation.
9. Explain what two words have in common.
10. Put pegs in holes, first with right hand then with left hand.
11. Pattern recognition.
12. Pattern re-creation.
13. Flash cards of words, and of faces -- asked to recall which two words and faces appeared in the flashed set.
14. Symbols/codes -- indicate which appear in a row.
15. Symbols/codes -- fill in symbols to match letters based on a key shown at the top of the page.
16. Vocabulary: List as many words as possible beginning with a particular letter, or belonging to a particular category.

The main thing to remember is that you're not expected to be perfect! The tests are just a tool to set a baseline and highlight particular areas of the brain that may be affected by neurological issues. There's usually a follow-up session later where the psychologist goes over the results with you.

Good luck, keep us posted!

 

[LJ-Bain]

I have also had a neuropsych appointment where she just asked me about when I get the seizures, what stressors I have in my life and how I deal with them.

 

[RanMan]

I had a neuropsych evaluation done a few years back. It was basically me and the psychologist in her office for about 3 hours, with her asking questions and giving me exercises to test memory encoding/recall, verbal conceptualization, visual reasoning, and manual dexterity. Some of the tests were timed. I made notes afterwards on the kinds of tests I had to do:

1. Recite back lists of numbers.
2. Recite back lists of numbers in reverse order.
3. Recite back a list of random words, then list them by category, then distinguish them from a second list. Recall them later in the session.
4. Recite back details of two different stories. Recall them later in the session.
5. Draw a complex shape shown in a picture. Then draw it from memory. Then distinguish it from 4 other similar drawings. Recalled later in session.
6. Math word problems (solve in head).
7. Word definitions.
8. Word pronunciation.
9. Explain what two words have in common.
10. Put pegs in holes, first with right hand then with left hand.
11. Pattern recognition.
12. Pattern re-creation.
13. Flash cards of words, and of faces -- asked to recall which two words and faces appeared in the flashed set.
14. Symbols/codes -- indicate which appear in a row.
15. Symbols/codes -- fill in symbols to match letters based on a key shown at the top of the page.
16. Vocabulary: List as many words as possible beginning with a particular letter, or belonging to a particular category.

The main thing to remember is that you're not expected to be perfect! The tests are just a tool to set a baseline and highlight particular areas of the brain that may be affected by neurological issues. There's usually a follow-up session later where the psychologist goes over the results with you.

Good luck, keep us posted!

Yes, that is basically what they do.

BUT ~ Mine was requested by my employer at the time (2004)
My employer wanted to see what I could/couldn't do.
He didn't believe that I had a seizure condition and the meds were slowing me down and that I was just trying to get out of doing certain tasks.

I was an administration manager for the Federal Gov't of Canada and the meds were preventing me from making the quick and decicive decisions like I could when I was younger.
They used this info. as an excuse to make my position obsolete and force me to take an early "medical"retirement at age 47. But that's O Kay with me because I'm the one that's laughing now, getting paid while I'm sitting on my ass. (8 years now)

Randy

 

[scaredycat]

@ RanMan, wow what a jerk... well at least you came off the better (I think)!

Thanks everybody for your replies. Looking at the list Nakamova gave of what they ask you to do, I can tell you already the ones I'm going to totally bomb on. But that's ok, it'll be interesting to see how they relate to the parts of my brain that ain't working good. I'm quite curious to see how my little brain functions

 

[CQ:)]

When I had my neuropsych evaluations they were done by 2 different neuropsychs (they both worked together as part of the program I was in for my surgery). These are just some of the tasks that were done at my evaluations (the ones I remember lol).

The 1st neuropsych evaluation was done by a male neuropsych, done while I was in for my Video EEG & it was about 1 1/2 - 2 hours all up. From memory I think with the memory/concentration test I was given a list of words to remember & had to remember as many words as I could. I was given the same list of words to remember a couple of times during the testing but the neuropsych would do some other tests then go back to the list of words & say them in a different order each time.

Another test was a list of paired up words, some of the words did go together eg - house / roof but other words didn't go together eg cat /piano. The neuropscyh read out the words & their pairs then he read out the 1st word of each pair & I had to try to remember their pairs. Like the other list of words the neuropsych would do other tests before he went back to the list of pairs. In the end I was thinking in my head of ways to remember the words lol.

Another test I was shown a picture then had to draw the picture from memory but using different coloured pencils.

Another test was that I was shown a heap of pictures & had to say what thought the pictures were.

The 2nd neuropsych evaluation was done 3 months after my surgery & done by the female neuropsych (she is the neuropsych I keep in regular contact with). That evaluation was a lot shorter then the 1st evaluation & think it was only about 30 mins all up. With that evaluation she did a few similar tests to the other neuropsych. Two of the tests I do remember was where I was given a list of words to remember & was shown pictures where I had to try to remember the name of them. The neuropsych told me the pictures were American so I may not be familiar with some of the words. Most of the words I did know but there were still a few that I didn't know.