Neuropsychology
What is neuropsychology?
Neuropsychology is the science concerned with the relationship between the brain, our thinking skills (cognition) and human behaviour.
Our services
Outpatient services
Our outpatient services provide neuropsychological assessment of a range of neurological and neurosurgical disorders.
We do not diagnose neurological illnesses. Instead, we provide neurologists and other practitioners with information about how the brain is working to help work towards a diagnosis. As well as helping with that, we can monitor the impact of disease progression, assess the extent of recovery and evaluate the effects of interventions (such as surgery or medication) on cognition and memory.
We are able to provide summaries for our patients and offer feedback sessions where needed. However, we do not have the resources to provide extended therapy or rehabilitation. This type of work is better managed by clinical psychologists and clinical neuropsychologists in community teams or rehabilitation facilities, who can work with patients and their families closer to home.
Inpatient services
We provide:
- Psychological support to patients and family members on the stroke ward and other neurological wards.
- Neuropsychological assessments with patients who are having video telemetry for epilepsy during their hospital stay. The video telemetry service is run by the neurophysiology department.
- Cognitive testing during awake craniotomy surgery for neuro-oncology patients.
Referral process
A neuropsychological assessment is usually triggered by a referral from a medical practitioner (neurologists, specialist nurses and GPs). We also accept referrals from nurse practitioners and psychologists. We don’t accept self-referrals because it is important for us to know the medical context for people’s concerns.
The groups of patients we typically assess include:
- Epilepsy
- Neuro-oncology
- Huntingdon’s
- Multiple sclerosis
- Neurodegenerative
- Head injury
- Tremor
- Stroke
- Functional neurological disorder.
For health professionals – to make a referral to the neuropsychology department, please email neuropsychology@uhs.nhs.uk
Research involvement
Our clinical work is complemented by research into better ways of evaluating difficulties with memory, perception, thinking and language. We have strong links with the University of Southampton’s department of psychology and are part of the developed UK Network for Investigating Young Onset Dementia (YoDA). We also have links with Oxford University, the Memory in Epilepsy Group and other research networks.
Some current research that we are involved in includes looking into new pharmaceutical interventions for Alzheimer’s and the effectiveness of a new software-based technology in predicting Alzheimer’s.
Contact us
You can email our department at neuropsychology@uhs.nhs.uk or call 023 8120 6577.