November 2015 NAN Conference in Austin, Texas

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Passing a test shouldn't be controversial. It's board certification and just one part of it.

Agreed. This is obviously anecdotal, but the folks I know who've sat for the written test indicated that it was difficult, but not unfair. There's nothing inherently wrong with a 60% pass rate in and of itself. Having taken a couple of the shorter practice exams while on fellowship, I didn't see anything wrong with the questions. Again, some were tough, but all were fair. Even the kiddo stuff.

And as clarification, they don't require APA accreditation for postdoc, it (or being an APPCN member program) just makes the application process easier, as it should. Same goes for APA accredited internship. If your internship and/or postdoc is unaccredited (or a non-APPCN program), it makes sense that there would be increased scrutiny, and that there's the chance it may not fulfill the necessary requirements. This is not ABCN's problem, and I would be against them reducing their standards even with the current internship imbalance.

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I am not under the impression that the ABPP test is controversial. Granted, a majority of my mentors, past supervisors, and colleagues are boarded. I have never heard that the test was unfair from a single one of them.
 
Now attending Sports Concussion Workshop with more CT, MRI, and DTI slides. Packed house. Today it is very crowded and it seems as if many are just attending today as it appears much more crowded today.

In the APCN workshop some in attendance seemed to be in the application process and had complaints they voiced but the presenter seemed to minimize and move on.

You all would like the Concussion workshop as it is all research based. Oh the UCLA presenter said DTI has really helped the field of TBI advance as often a CT will be normal when a DTI examines metabolism of chemicals in brain. Hah.. Rodent studies were covered for concussion and mild TBI!!!
Now up Advance in TBI Science by MD from Wisconsin Medical College. Going to cover Military Trauma TBI.

Sounds like some MD and medical school students and residents are at this workshop.
 
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Seems to have something to do with examining glucose, sodium, potassium, calcium in the brain.

The MD indicated neuropsychologist need to be part of trauma team at Major Trauma Centers. Research needs to have some cognitive testing shortly after the concussion for baseline and follow up. Under current system a person may suffer from a concussion go to ER and be released when they actually have a severe brain injury.
 
Are you thinking of PET scans with tracers? Because those can measure metabolism in a certain way.

And, I imagine they can indeed have a severe brain injury when a research team redefines what a severe brain injury is and shoehorns a metric on top of it without validating it in a large enough sample. I'm not as enamored with the Boston and UCLA people as others are, they are over-intepreting their data in an apparent mad grab for available research cash.
 
The UCLA group has a grant and they are using rodents. Where is PETA? I may have misheard him as I am having allergy issue since arriving in Austin and my ears are plugged up and the fight didn't help.
 
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Apparently some research by Kirkland suggesting that a neuropsychogical screening at the acute phase of mild TBI is actually an intervention and reduces the potential of Chronic Concussional Syndrome
 
Chronic Concussional Syndrome

I thought this was make believe? Thats what all my neuropsych friends tell me.

And, when is Bobbie gonna kiss Suzie? Or perhaps he is hanging with Lucy Morals instead?
 
Wow... Made it sixth street for some real Mexican food. The one thing I mess since moving from Texas is the Mexican Food.
 
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From talking with other attendees this is one of lowest number of attendees at a NAN Conference. Most take a week off and make it vacation. Sounds like most Neuropsychologist are located either on the East or West Coast and they were not crazy about Austin. Most wish it would have been in San Antonio. I am planning on attending in Seattle next year and go for a week since I can stay at family member houses.
 
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Seattle's an awesome city; I'd probably find a way to attend a conference there just for the location.

And I wouldn't be surprised to hear that a neuropsych eval in the acute mTBI phase can be associated with reduced likelihood of post-concussion syndrome. You're basically validating the person's concerns, alleviating worries about something somehow "slipping through the cracks," and providing psychoeducation (i.e., the most effective treatment we have for PCS).

Although you could potentially produce the same results with just a brief screen and the aforementioned psychoeducation.
 
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Although you could potentially produce the same results with just a brief screen and the aforementioned psychoeducation.

Yup, good data to support expectancy in recovery of concussion being a driving factor. Man, PCS is the little made up diagnosis that could these days. That thing will never die.
 
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Current protocol for mild TBI is to be assessed acute day of incident, seven days, 3 and 6 months. Because there is a sand born effect many believe they are fully recovered, especially athletes and they don't go to the follow up appointments. Under current standards athletes play the next week and may have a second concussion because they don't believe they are injured and they lie to everyone making them a higher risk for long term damage. On another vein, combat veteran may feign a head injury to get out of combat. There needs to be a standard efficacious methods to assess mild TBI including neuropsych testing and imaging data to reduce malingering or denial of head injuries.
 
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Sand Born
 
Long three days at NAN. Not many here on Friday afternoon. Three hour to go and fly out at 6:40 am on Saturday. Apparently all the Hotels were booked in this area and nearby Hampton Inn had rates in the $300 dollar range tonight. I found a Sleep INN for tonight at $149.00. Seems that it would make financial sense for these Neuropsychological Associations to collaborate and have some type of joint conference venture rather than five separate conferences a year as it is too expensive to attend all of theses conferences.
 
Just remember, there's a Lucy Morals at every conference, even NAN.
 
Evening speaker on outcomes research indicated a PET scan cost 5-8 thousand dollars. A Neuropsych eval cost 800 to 1500. Before a PET scan is ordered a Neuropsych eval should be required to justify need or no need to do a PET Scan. Most PET scan are unnecessary when patient has no deficit areas from neurocognitive evaluation.

Oh, I think this was a good conference and learning experience. No one getting drunk or acting crazy. Many brought their spouse and kids to the conference. After my first experience, I would recommend attending NAN, especially if you value the science of psychology.
 
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From what you described in the concussion and brain injury realm, I'm not sure how much science went on there...

Well they had a multitude of CT, MRI, and other scans in their slides. One even had fMRI videos. Multifactorial studies were emphasized and only one presenter in the concussion workshop discussed clinical interventions and need for single subject design studies while disfavoring using the normal curve for determining impairment. He said 25%ile should be used as cutoff point for impairment rather than 1 to 5th %ile.

Interesting the ABPP CN presenter emphasized that we are clinical psychologist first before being clinical neuropsychologist so all of their exams cover clinical psychology and clinical neuropsychology with emphasis on ethics, diversity, and culture. You won't pass the exam if you just study neuropsychology and some neuropsychologist forget they are psychologist first.
 
One of the major trends in this conference was inadequacies of psychometric testing for concussions and mild TBI. Clinical judgement is vital for effective neuropsych Evals and it seems that we will need further training in understanding imaging. This was part of my training but rarely do I have this information when doing Evals.
 
One of the major trends in this conference was inadequacies of psychometric testing for concussions and mild TBI. Clinical judgement is vital for effective neuropsych Evals and it seems that we will need further training in understanding imaging. This was part of my training but rarely do I have this information when doing Evals.

Call me jaded, but at least the way this is being described, it sounds to me like a presenter basically saying, "our current tests aren't finding any persisting effects from concussions/mTBI, but that can't possibly be because there generally aren't persisting effects. Nope, must be that our tests aren't sensitive enough."

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying our tests are perfect by any stretch of the imagination. But wow, people really want there to be significant findings when it comes to concussion.

And I would agree that clinical judgment is a necessary component of any neuropsychological evaluation. That's what makes it a neuropsychological evaluation; without it, you're just blindly administering and scoring tests. It's why so many untrained psychologists who purport to conduct such evaluations aren't actually performing neuropsych assessments.
 
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying our tests are perfect by any stretch of the imagination. But wow, people really want there to be significant findings when it comes to concussion.

But! When I ran a thousand t-tests without corrections for multiple comparisons, these handful of tests came back p<.05! They must mean that concussions cause catastrophic differences!
 
But! When I ran a thousand t-tests without corrections for multiple comparisons, these handful of tests came back p<.05! They must mean that concussions cause catastrophic differences!
This is cool. Before starting stats for psych this fall I had no clue when statements like this were made..now I get what you're saying :) lol
 
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