Clinical Practice of Forensic Neuropsychology

Boone (California School of Forensic Studies, Alliant International U., and psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences, U. of California, Los Angeles) outlines evidence-based practices for graduate students, trainees, and forensic psychologists and psychiatrists to use when conducting a civil forensic neuropsychological assessment and delivering expert testimony. In the first chapter, she discusses issues related to the exam, like requests for observers, treater-expert relationships, demands that test names be provided to the test taker and counsel prior to the exam, the pretest interview, problems with interviewing collateral informants, test selection, testing patients who are not fluent in English, the use of technicians, and documentation. Chapters that follow cover symptom validity tests and techniques for identifying negative response bias; the effectiveness of tests to identify psychological symptom overreport; the ability of standard psychological tests to detect overreport, including post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms; test scoring and interpretation; major flaws in reports; common misperceptions about mild traumatic brain injury; and how to protect a report from attack during testimony and common methods used to discredit neuropsychologists and their data. Annotation c2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)