Inadequate Neuropsychologists Harm Recovery after Brain Injury

Unsatisfactory Neuropsychologists are a Large Challenge

By Gordon S. Johnson, Jr.

Unsatisfactory neuropsychologists take away the value of the right diagnosis after TBI and are commonly the largest problem a brain injury lawyer may face. A neuropsychologist is not technically a medical doctor, but instead holds a doctorate in the field of psychology. To be qualified, a neuropsychologist should have done a post-doctoral residency in neuropsychology, preferably in a medical school setting, training right next to neurological residents.

Neuropsychologists were at the forefront of identifying brain injury deficits.  Much of my passion for brain injury came from the leadership of neuropsychologists. When I first chose this passion, neuropsychologists were at center stage of brain injury diagnosis. In ‘92, the most important part of the diagnostic image of brain disability was the neuropsychologist.

However some things have changed since the early ‘90s. Strides in neuroimaging has provided us with more proof that the brain has been injured, even for a brain injury that did not involve a coma. While the medical evidence of injury has been getting clearer, neuropsychology has been to a great extent taken over by doctors who are financially persuaded by the insurance companies and blame disability on malingering, or faking symptoms, and secondary gain. Rather than being the caring doctor who used years of clinical assessment to identify symptoms, many neuropsychologists are currently the main denier.

It started with problematic research that was paid for by corporate or insurance companies or created by medical professionals who earned obscene amounts of money as defense experts. This fake science has called legitimately injured persons malingerers (basically liars). When the integrity of the injured individual was too apparent to label them a malingerer, they would employ the backhanded silliness of a somatoform diagnosis, a mental illness that triggers physical symptoms.

All in all, the number of inadequate neuropsychologists have increased by mentoring a generation of new medical professionals in these errors of statistical significance. Maybe the absolute worst of the new guidelines is the Fake Bad Scale. This scale looks at the answers of injured persons up against those of uninjured persons. Injured people are more likely to negate questions about their general health. But rather than finding the negative answers to be proof of finding of real deficits, the Fake Bad Scale says the increased negative endorsement is due to faking. A Court said this about the Fake Bad Scale:

On its face, the Fake Bad Scale doesn’t make sense. This is a test that is supposed determine if a person is accurately reporting the symptoms that they are suffering or are they exaggerating or malingering. However, the test inquires about multiple symptoms persons would likely have if they in fact had what they claimed. If the (injured person) reports that they have the symptoms, those answers are counted as points towards malingering or exaggeration.

This test in effect says, if you report the symptoms that we would expect you to have if you have this injury, then you are exaggerating your symptoms or you are a faker.

The court finds this approach cannot possibly be scientific.

An individual knows whether the neuropsychologist is good or bad by the value that the neuropsychologist places upon the Fake Bad Scale. The good neuropsychologists will most likely bring up the scale. The bad neuropsychologists will employ it in a diagnosis.

If your lawyer doesn’t understand this problem in neuropsychology, you will have no fair chance at a reasonable recovery in your legal case.  Moreover, your medical rehabilitation will be challenged by this foolish label the bad neuropsychologist has used.

Gordon Johnson

Attorney Gordon Johnson is one of the nations leading brain injury advocates. He is Past-Chair of the TBILG, a national group of more than 150 brain injury advocates. He has spoken at numerous brain injury seminars and is the author of some of the most read brain injury web pages on the internet.

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