MILD TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY & NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL TESTING

An accident victim leaves the emergency room with negative findings on x-rays, CT scans and MRI scans of the brain.  The victim continues to suffer from headache, confusion, lack of coordination, memory loss, nausea, vomiting, dizziness, ringing in the ears, sleepiness, and/or excessive fatigue.

This person has many subjective symptoms but has no objective evidence of any cognitive defect.  A subjective symptom is a symptom that a person says they have.  An objective symptom is a symptom that can be measured or verified.

An example of the value of objective evidence of mild TBI can be found in the Veterans Administration claims process.   If this were a Veterans Administration claim, the lack of any objective evidence in a TBI claim might lead to a 0% or 10% disability rating.  Objective evidence of cognitive defect from a neuropsychological test might lead to a 40-70% disability rating.

A neuropsychological test is administered by an experience PhD psychologist from an accredited Neuropsychological program.   Neuropsychological tests objectively and scientifically measure how your impairment is impacting your attention span, memory, learning perception, problem solving, recall, speed processing, verbal functioning, and executive functioning, among other things.

The test consists of an interview, a detailed review of the medical history, observations, self-report questionnaires and tailored standardized tests.  A report will be prepared and outline what, if any, cognitive defects the patient has, the severity, extent and the cause thereof.

If you were in a car accident and had any or all of the above concussion symptoms, an insurance company would be more willing to offer a better settlement of your claims based upon the result of a neuropsychological test than your  subjective symptoms and negative emergency room testing.