It is difficult to imagine what it must be like for someone following the personal crisis and catastrophe that ensues as a result of a serious traumatic brain injury (TBI). The individual is confronted with a huge range of alterations in his or her normal functioning, operating at the biological, psychological and social levels. All of these changes are also occurring to an individual who has just had a near-death experience, culminating not too surprisingly in the reflections "Who am I?" and "Why am I here?" As a result, these individuals can develop a wide range of behavioural, emotional, and psychiatric conditions following the injury, including depression, bipolar disorder, secondary mania, psychotic states, posttraumatic stress disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, phobic disorders, and generalized anxiety disorders, to name a few. In addition, these individuals can also be subject to a number of neuropsychiatric syndromes, including disorders of drive, disorders of impulse control, and disturbance of neurovegetative functioning. This book presents the current state of our knowledge of the behavioural and emotional effects that can occur as sequelae of TBI, and addresses issues associated with their differential diagnosis and the neurobiological mechanisms by which these might occur. The book will prove an excellent resource not only for clinicians who practice as psychiatrists, behavioural neurologists, clinical neuropsychologists and clinical psychologists, but also for psychologists in advanced training and for anyone who is involved in caring for or working with individuals with TBI.

It is difficult to imagine what it must be like for someone following the personal crisis and catastrophe that ensues as a result of a serious traumatic brain injury (TBI). The individual is confronted with a huge range of alterations in his or her normal functioning, operating at the biological, psychological and social levels. All of these changes are also occurring to an individual who has just had a near-death experience, culminating not too surprisingly in the reflections "Who am I?" and "Why am I here?" As a result, these individuals can develop a wide range of behavioural, emotional, and psychiatric conditions following the injury, including depression, bipolar disorder, secondary mania, psychotic states, posttraumatic stress disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, phobic disorders, and generalized anxiety disorders, to name a few. In addition, these individuals can also be subject to a number of neuropsychiatric syndromes, including disorders of drive, disorders of impulse control, and disturbance of neurovegetative functioning. This book presents the current state of our knowledge of the behavioural and emotional effects that can occur as sequelae of TBI, and addresses issues associated with their differential diagnosis and the neurobiological mechanisms by which these might occur. The book will prove an excellent resource not only for clinicians who practice as psychiatrists, behavioural neurologists, clinical neuropsychologists and clinical psychologists, but also for psychologists in advanced training and for anyone who is involved in caring for or working with individuals with TBI.

This book offers Australian mental health clinicians for the first time a locally written guide to the clinical interpretation of cognitive assessments using the Wechsler scales, including the WAIS-IV, the WMS-IV and the Advanced Clinical Solutions for WAIS-IV and WMS-IV. Using Australian case material, the reader is provided with empirical and interpretative analysis based upon the varying State legal requirements, the range of sociocultural uses to which intellectual assessment is put, and consideration of appropriate norms. The reader will encounter clinical presentations highly relevant to everyday practice, even for those clinicians not regularly undertaking such assessments. Featured cases include assessment in the area of intellectual disability, traumatic brain injury, and in situations in which the issue of less than genuine effort could be noted. Guidelines for report writing applied to specific referral questions are also presented, and a focus on clinical dilemmas, including: differentiation of the full neuropsychological examination from the screening examination what to do if your client has problems communicating or responding suggestions with regard to the selection of norms determining whether the neuropsychological assessment can be useful in diagnostic categorisations ascertaining whether reliable change has occurred in repeated assessment the implications of neuropsychological assessment for prediction of behaviour in the real world.