Dr O’Dowd offers independent neuropsychological, psychological, forensic and medico-legal services to adults in the following areas:

1.  Assessment of acquired brain damage following:

• Head injuries
• Various neurological conditions, e.g.
  • Stroke
  • Epilepsy
  • Huntington’s disease
  • Parkinson’s disease
  • Alzheimer’s diseases
  • Degenerative disorders

2. Cognitive rehabilitation directed at functional difficulties, e.g.

• Attention/concentration
• New learning/memory
• Language skills
• Higher order reasoning
• Planning and organisation
• Behavioural/emotional control
• Social skills

3. Competency/capacity assessments, such as capacity for:

• EPOA
• independent livingiving
• financial management
• decision making

4. Independent pre/post assessments for drug and surgery treatments, e.g.

• ADAS-Cog for pre/post dementia drug treatments

5. Assessment and psychotherapy for:

• Depression

• Anxiety
• Adjustment difficulties
• Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

What are Neuropsychological Assessments?

A neuropsychological assessment involves testing different intellectual (cognitive) thinking processes, such as an individual’s information processing speed, attention/concentration skills, memory functions, language abilities, problem solving capacity, and the extent to which they can regulate their responses.  Assessments are generally performed to assess the nature and degree of impairment associated with a brain injury (e.g. as a result of car and work accidents) or neurological condition (such as stroke, dementia, brain tumour, and epilepsy).  Assessments may also be requested to ascertain a person’s cognitive strengths and weaknesses to help direct rehabilitation, evaluate their capacity to perform certain tasks (such as return to driving or work)  or assist with future education and employment options.

Neuropsychological assessments are comprehensive and time consuming (averaging between four to six hours to complete plus rest breaks) as they need to take into account an individual’s physical, emotional, behavioural and cognitive functioning.  They involve first obtaining a thorough personal and clinical history before administering an appropriately selected battery of pen and paper or computer-based tests.  The assessments may be conducted over two sessions, depending on the client’s clinical condition and fatigue levels..