UC San Diego Health offers neuropsychological testing to evaluate a broad range of cognitive and behavioral issues resulting from brain dysfunction. These services are only available to existing UC San Diego Health patients and require a referral from your UC San Diego Health provider.
Our neuropsychological testing services can help measure, test and assess brain-behavior relationships as they relate to attention, verbal ability, learning and memory, spatial organization, initiation of behavior, abstract thinking, and other higher-level cognitive abilities.
Services
We offer evaluation of cognitive capacity for specific patient groups, including:
- Elderly patients with memory problems
- Head injury patients
- Stroke victims, or patients with other neurological disorders
- Patients with substance abuse problems
We can also help determine baseline mental function in patients whose conditions may be improving or worsening:
- Before initiating treatment programs
- When progressive dementia is suspected
- Before neurosurgery
Yet another valuable service we offer is establishing the consequences of a person's brain injury or disorder on everyday functioning, including:
- Vocational implications
- Independent living
- Compensation strategies
Advantages
Assessments describe a patient's current abilities with reference to other people of a similar education, age, gender and ethnic background, and also with respect to how those abilities translate into real-life employment and life management potentials.
Different tests have been developed to respond to specific referral questions arising from diverse patient populations, ranging from closed head injuries to Alzheimer's disease. Tests may also help to document cognitive changes occurring during the course of disease or treatment.
Research-based assessments help to ensure that all tests, methods and scoring procedures are uniform and precise, and that conclusions drawn from test results will be substantiated and reliable.
Fees
Tests of differing lengths are used in our assessment, depending on the nature of the referral. Patients can expect several hours of testing, scoring and interpretation. Although not inexpensive, our service is committed to keeping cost reasonable and below the price of most comparable community-based services. In addition, many insurance companies cover either all or a substantial portion of the cost of assessment, if policy provisions such as pre-authorization are met.
Referral for Services
Patients need a referral from their treating physician to access our testing services. Please talk to your physician about whether you could benefit from our services.