What is Neuropsychiatry?
Neuropsychiatry is a scientific specialty, a branch of Psychiatry, which is responsible for the study and treatment of psychiatric or behavioral disorders that occur in patients with neurological pathologies.
Neuropsychiatrists perform neurological examinations, psychometric studies (from neuropsychology) and complementary tests for the evaluation of disorders such as Parkinson’s disease, dementia, schizophrenia, stroke or traumatic brain injury.
In turn, neuropsychology complements the research carried out from the branch of Neurology and Psychiatry with the study of the relationships between behavior and brain functions in patients suffering from some type of brain damage. In this way, advances in the diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation of patients with impairments and damage to brain mechanisms linked to certain behaviors can be applied.
The neuropsychiatrist is a fundamental support for patients with Alzheimer’s disease or other dementias, as well as for their relatives.
What diseases does Neuropsychiatry treat?
The particularity of Neuropsychiatry is that it focuses on mental disorders affecting patients with brain or nervous system pathologies.
Thus, neurological diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s or cerebral palsy, among others, are treated to a great extent. But it also treats disorders resulting from accidents or brain damage, which can develop various disorders as sequelae of the disease.
What subspecialties are there within Neuropsychiatry?
The assessment and interpretation of the brain and its affectations is very complex, so the specialist needs to combine Psychiatry and Neurology, but also to have the help and knowledge of psychologists, neurochemists, radiologists, neurophysiologists or even biochemists, among others.
When to go to the neuropsychiatrist?
The patient who has a diagnosis of a disease of the nervous system will go to the neuropsychiatrist. They can go to this professional to follow up their disease, as well as to control the effectiveness and effects of the medication, or even simply to carry out cognitive reinforcement activities or therapy. Also, the patient’s family and closest relatives can meet with the neuropsychiatrist in some sessions to work with the patient’s environment.