TESTS THAT HELP
PROVE A TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY
Question- Are there tests that allow
doctors to see the injuries to a person’s brain after a head injury?
What if all of the scans are negative?
Are there any psychological tests that are
available? Can these tests help legally as well as medically?
Answer-
Yes, there are tests that allow someone to see a brain problem. These
tests can be very helpful in helping your doctor coming up with an idea
of what’s wrong with your head. They can also help deal with insurance
companies who sometimes say that the reason injured people are hurt for
so long is because they are making it look worse than it really is or
are just looking for money.
1. A CT:
This is a test
that makes pictures of different thickness of the brain. It allows
pictures to be made of the brain inside the skull. It is sometimes
called a CAT scan, which stands for computerized axial tomography.
2. The
MRI, which stands for magnetic resonance imaging:
This is newer
than the CT scan. It makes pictures of what the brain looks like. It has
clearer pictures than the CT scan and can show smaller injuries or
changes in the brain. Sometimes one of the CT or MRI scans can show the
brain is hurt when the other does not. CT and MRI scans are often
unhelpful in proving mild brain injuries.
3. The
SPECT scan:
SPECT stands
for single photon emission computer tomography. It tests for how well
different parts of the brain are working. A recent research study
showed that some head injuries that are diagnosed as “not very bad”, can
be seen on the SPECT scan to be worse than they appear, even when the CT
or MRI scans are normal.
Some B.C.
doctors don’t agree that the SPECT scan is a very good test. It hasn’t
been decided whether or not they will be used as evidence in courtroom
cases.
4. Neuropsychological testing:
A psychologist
who specializes in helping people with brain injuries does this testing.
They may see a
patient’s problems that other people can’t see with the help of a couple
of tests, closely watching the patient, and talking with friends and
relatives of the patient. Neuropsychological testing may be helpful in
showing that there is a brain injury for legal as well as medical
reasons. This is because X-rays, CT, MRI scans, SPECT scans and even an
exam by a neurologist may show no problems.
Neuropsychological testing, which is testing the brain, does not have
any limits. Some small mental problems may be missed in the doctor’s
evaluation, but may be obvious by how the patient functions everyday.
This is because neuropsychological testing isn’t always like real life.
For example, the testing is done in a planned, quiet place with tests
that are often no longer than 15 minutes long. This is different than
real life. Real life can often be wild, have interruptions (like being
noisy, busy, or confusing), and make patients do activities for long
periods of time.
This is why
psychologists need to have talks with the patient’s friends, relatives
and maybe even people the patient works with about how good the patient
does everyday in real life situations. Neuropsychological therapy, which
deals with looking at how a patient lives everyday, can often go
together with the psychologist’s evaluation.
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Portland traumatic brain injury law
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