What is a neuropsychological evaluation?

“Neuro” refers to the biological functioning of the brain that influences your behavior.

“Psychological” refers to the interrelated processes of thinking, reasoning, feeling, and relating to self and others.

“Evaluation” refers to the process of assessing these neuro and psychological factors.

In a neuropsychological evaluation we try to discover more about your strengths, potentials, blocks, impairments, and need for redirection and support.

The process involves interviews and the administration of standardized tests. In the interviews, we discuss your understanding of your life, goals and difficulties. The standardized tests focus on your problem solving methods. In this way we try to accurately describe your strengths and vulnerabilities and the potentials you have to resolve the challenges that concern you.

When does a person come for a neuropsychological evaluation?

Most of the time you are referred by a professional who is seeking information that will help to resolve your problems.

Some people, however, are urged by family members to seek an evaluation, or they refer themselves, because they feel stuck in life and want a better understanding of how to achieve a breakthrough.

When can a neuropsychological evaluation be useful?

Often, people come to see me because they have lost their way in school, in work, in self-control or in finding or keeping relationships. They might be stymied by substance abuse, undercut by depressive thoughts, anxiety, panic, impulsive behaviors, memories of trauma, or inflated moods. All these can be marks of psychiatric disorders.

Individuals who come to me for an evaluation are seeking information about what causes them to be blocked or overwhelmed and what actions will remedy the problem. They seek a new perspective that can help them understand a way out of the difficulties that beset them, a perspective that can also connect them with their strengths in thinking, feeling and relating.

What age range do you evaluate?

I work with adolescents and adults, including the elderly.

What type of problems do you evaluate?

• Neurodevelopmental disorders (such as Autism Spectrum Disorder)
• School learning problems (due to brain injury, learning disabilities, mood or thinking disorders)
• Psychosis (whether it is a function of the single, or combined effects of substance abuse, mood disorder, or variants of Schizophrenia)
• Mood disorders (depression, Bipolar Disorder and/or anxiety)
• Vocational choices and problem solving. Here the emphasis is on identifying the jobs that best fit with a person’s character traits and cognitive skills. Also, there is a focus on how one's character strengths can be used to improve problem solving at work.
• Memory and organizational limitations (due to incipient dementia or concussion trauma).

What are the tests used in a neuropsychological evaluations?

Tests of cognitive functioning focused on the following:

• Verbal and perceptual organization
• Short- and long-term memory
• Working memory (your ability to use memory when thinking through a problem)
• Mental speed
• Concentration (your ability to focus and divide attention)
• Executive processes (your ability to inhibit distractions, change perspectives and use inductive and deductive thinking).

Tests of psychological functioning:

• These consist of questions about your thinking, feelings about yourself and others, and about your ways of relating to others.
• The questions use either a true/false or an open-ended format (such as “what do you think?”).

Where does the evaluation take place?

Most evaluations take place either in my office or in the referring professional’s setting (school, office or hospital). Sometimes, if it seems a more useful method, the assessment can take place in the client’s home.

What will be delivered when the evaluation is completed?

You will receive a verbal and written report describing the findings and recommendations. With your permission, a copy of the report will be given to and discussed with the professional who made the referral. If your family members request a copy of the report, one can be sent to them if you permit it.

How long do the interviews/tests and feedback sessions take?

The evaluation process consists of the following:

• Several hours (4 to 8 hrs.) of face-to-face meetings with Dr. Landino. These are done in 2-hour sessions.
• One-hour phone, or face-to-face interview with family members for the purpose of gathering historical data, if you permit it.
• One session in which the evaluation findings and recommendations are presented to you.
• One session in which the evaluation findings and recommendations are presented to you and your family together, if you permit it.

How do I prepare for an evaluation?

Get a good night’s sleep the night before you come to the sessions and bring reading glasses if you need them.

How is billing and payment arranged?

I work outside of the networks of insurance companies but will provide you the information you need to seek insurance reimbursement.

When you have agreed to go forward with the evaluation, I will send you an invoice for the service. After I receive payment, we begin the evaluation, and when it is completed I will provide you (and the referring professional) with the verbal and written reports. I will then send you and your insurance company the record of services, fees and payments for processing.