Medical and emotional factors

When an illness, or its treatment, changes your thinking.

Many medical conditions and the treatments used for them affect memory, attention, and mental speed. Those effects can be measured rather than endured in uncertainty.

Why an evaluation

The question this answers

Many medical illnesses and their treatments affect thinking. People describe changes in memory, attention, mental speed, or problem solving in the context of conditions such as cancer, autoimmune disorders, cardiovascular disease, and infections, or as an effect of medications and medical treatment.

A neuropsychological evaluation provides a comprehensive, objective assessment of those changes — their nature, their extent, and how far they are likely to relate to the medical condition, to treatment effects, to emotional factors, or to some combination.

What testing examines

The domains examined

A series of standardized tests examines the cognitive domains most often affected, with results compared against normative data for your age, education, and background.

  • Memory and new learning
  • Attention and concentration
  • Processing speed
  • Language
  • Executive functioning
  • Emotional functioning

Who it is for

Who is referred

Referrals come from oncologists, rheumatologists, cardiologists, infectious disease specialists, neurologists, and primary care physicians — usually when a patient reports cognitive change that is difficult to interpret against everything else happening medically.

What you receive

What the evaluation gives you

A written report that your physicians and treatment team can use: what was measured, how it compares with expectation, and recommendations for rehabilitation, workplace or academic adjustments, and strategies that support day-to-day functioning.

Clarifying the pattern of cognitive strengths and difficulties gives patients and families something concrete to plan around, and gives the treating team a record they can compare against later.

Neuropsychological Associates provides assessment and consultation only. The practice does not provide counseling, psychotherapy, cognitive rehabilitation, neurologic consultation, or psychiatric assessment. Recommendations in the report are carried out by your own physicians and treating providers.

Arranging an evaluation

A letter of medical necessity or a physician's office note is required. Our office verifies your insurance benefits before anything is scheduled. Prefer to talk it through first? Call (631) 366-3369.

If you are experiencing a medical emergency, call 911 or go to the nearest emergency department. This practice does not provide emergency or crisis services.Cognitive Changes with Medical Illness or Treatment — Neuropsychological Associates