Neuropsychological evaluation for severely brain damaged people
After a brain injury, cognitive and behavioural disabilities are frequently detected that can jeopardize an individual’s reinsertion into the family and society. The most frequently observed disorders after a severe brain injury are:
- dysfunctions and inefficiencies in the process of information elaboration (memory and attention abilities, linguistic faculties, spatial awareness and praxic skills);
- inefficiencies in executive abilities (selection abilities, planning, organising and verifying actions aimed at a precise goal);
- inefficiencies in social behaviour (apathy, listlessness, lack of awareness of their deficits, dysphoria, aggression, disinhibition, impulsiveness, lack of emotional control).
Neuropsychological investigation, through the psychometric tests, gathers and measures data about cognitive abilities after an injury, after neurosurgery and at the beginning or end of a rehabilitative period; it identifies the cognitive functions left or the ones affected by brain damage, explains the size of the deficit and, at the same time, draws the attention to the strong points for the rehab course, following its evolution in time. In particular there is an analysis of the higher brain functions such as memory, learning, attention, language, visual perception, praxic skills and executive functions. The main goal of an evaluation is to develop a profile of the person’s cognitive status to give indications concerning a patient’s management and assistance, planning of the course and the evaluation of the effectiveness of the actions implemented. Furthermore, evaluations are becoming more frequently important in forensic and insurance issues (required by lawyers, judges and occupational doctors) as the only tool which can describe a person’s cognitive processes.
