Health and Psychology

A friend of mine went to a psychiatrist recently to look into getting medication for his depression and was surprised when the psychiatrist referred him to therapy instead.  "Medication for mild to moderate depression, just isn't that helpful, but therapy is far more effective."  

That's true, for the most part.  It depends on the type of therapy being offered.  It also depends on making sure the actual diagnosis is depression.  Supportive psychother...

In the past week a colleague of mine and I have seen about 6 children that appear to have been misdiagnosed with attention deficit disorder or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.  The children had a few things in common.  They were all reportedly diagnosed by their elementary or preschool teachers and referred to their primary care physicians for medication.  They all live in an underserved community and were all boys.

The hallmark of Attention Deficit D...

The new box came in the mail.  It's a treatment program for dyslexia based on neuroplasticity theories.  The day I got it, a client called telling me they wanted an assessment because they are "hopelessly dyslexic." It was the second person to use that term this month.  I don't think of anyone as "hopelessly" anything.

I didn't get the program for a specific client, although I think many of my clients would benefit from it. I got it for me, because one of the ...

This question was raised at the Health Psychology group I belong to.  The situations were a bit different but the questions remained. 

• "I referred a patient out for a dementia work up and they said he was normal." 

• "I referred a head trauma patient out for an evaluation and the test came back anxious, not head injured."

• "I referred a patient out for a medical evaluation.  They said the symptoms were all in her head, not real."...

What's the difference between testing in neuropsychology and psychology?

I met a psychologist who does psychological testing that includes some neuropsychological instruments.  I've also met neuropsychologists who are primarily using psychological tests as neuropsychological instruments.  So here's the difference.  A neuropsychologist can relate brain functioning to testing. 

A standard psychological test is the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS).  ...

Today I get to do one of my favorite exercises with my class.  I downloaded actual accident reports from the internet on train, airplane crashes with diagrams or photos and car accident simulation diagrams for the class.  Then we get to talk about the physics of brain injury, the use of restraints to mitigate injury, and the complexity of orthopaedic injuries and soft tissue injuries compounding brain injuries.

So here's what the class gets to find out:

Minor brain injury can result in long term complications.  The average healthy adult can anticipate recovery from a minor brain injury in 3 to 6 months.  Some people with minor brain injuries are not healthy premorbidly and some people have had more than one brain injury.  This leads to more complications that can occur over a longer period of time.

Head trauma sets in motion a complex neurochemical and physiological reaction.  The range of physiological ...

Neuropsychological assessment involves an evaluation of the cortex of the brain through psychological and neuropsychologial tests and measures to gain an understanding of how a person is functioning in a variety of areas.  These areas include evaluation of:

• Executive functioning, including planning and organization
  
• Language and speech functioning
• Visual functioning
• Sensory awareness
  
• Motor functioning
• Concept formati...

I love my iPad.  I use the medical applications in my work frequently and other professionals often ask what I've recently downloaded.  So here are my most frequently used medical applications:

1.  MedPage

2. NEJM

3. Medical News

4. HD brain

5. ICD 9 Consult

6. Universal DrSpeaker

7. TinnitusTrainer

8. 3D Brain

9. NeuroSuite

10. EMSG (Medical Spanish)

11. HDSystemEndocrine

12. WebMD

13. Ep...

There's a very inspiring article in Lemondrop about Jenna Phillips, a personal trainer in Los Angeles.  She had a head injury in 2000.  The field of head injury evaluation and rehabilitation has improved substantially in understanding what happens in a head injury and what anticipated recovery should be. 

In the 1980's the vast majority of individual were told that concussion was "mild," that recovery would occur in weeks or months, and that any residual symp...