booming areas within neuropsych

[PsyD4me]

hello again all!
Was wondering what others have heard about the booming areas within neuropsychology. From talking to people I have heard that anything dealing with children is in demand, any others?

PsyD4me

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[PublicHealth]

Clinical neuropsychology hasn't really been "booming" as of late. Speculations abound regarding the downfall of clinical psychology and neuropsychology within healthcare, mostly centering on reimbursement issues.

In terms of neuropsychologic research, a "booming" area is linking neurobiologic data (fMRI, PET, EEG) with functional data (neuropsychometric tests) to better elucidate brain-behavior relationships. Here's an example: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/...ve&db=PubMed&list_uids=14514506&dopt=Abstract

Clinically, neuropsychologists continue to evaluate the usual range neurobehavioral syndromes, including acquired brain injury (e.g., TBI, CNS infections, toxic encephalopathies), neurodegenerative disorders (Alzheimer Disease, Huntington's Disease, multiple sclerosis), learning disorders (ADHD, dyslexia), epilepsy, and aphasias. I guess these can be considered "booming" areas, although I am not sure anyone keeps track of which syndrome is evaluated most frequently. As you suggested, child neuropsychologic disorders are probably a hot area in clinical neuropsychology, given the media attention to ADHD and related disorders.

Hope this helps.

PH

P.S. Which Psy.D. program are you currently in or considering?

 

[Sanman]

Personally, I believe that as far as "booming" areas in neuropsychology goes, the best money seems to be in ADD, learning disorders, and other educationally related disorders. In general, ped. psych and neuropsych are booming for the most part and the movement of psychologists into health problems are inc., however high incomes aren't necessarily part of that boom. Also, I'm sure that school/educational psychologists may encroach on this boom too.

 

[ckent]

Yes, I agree. The areas involving learning disorders and working with children with things like Autism or ADHD seem to be booming as the number of children who are gaining these diagnoses seems to be exponentially increasing for some unknown reason. I suppose that part of the reason that the prevalence of ADHD is increasing is just secondary to increasing awareness and surveilance, but have you guys been reading about the increasing prevalence of autism in California? It's really weird. I'd be surprised if there wasn't some key environmental factor that we are all missing that was causing this all. Most parents are adverse to the idea of medicating kids for obvious reasons, so even though the pharmacology in treating these disorders is improving as well, you will never see pharmacology overtake cognitive behavioral techniques that the neuropsychologists offer. I don't think that FP's or internists can diagnose things like ADHD in their office either.

 

[PublicHealth]

Medicate the children! It's good for business! Who cares about the long-term consequences. Diagnose 50% of kids with ADHD or autism, and we'll throw drugs at them!

Biol Psychiatry. 2003 Dec 15;54(12):1330-7.

Enduring behavioral effects of early exposure to methylphenidate in rats.

Carlezon WA, Mague SD, Andersen SL.

Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, McLean Hospital, Belmont, Massachusetts, USA

Methylphenidate (MPH) is a stimulant prescribed for the treatment of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Stimulant drugs can cause enduring behavioral adaptations, including altered drug sensitivity, in laboratory animals. We examined how early developmental exposure to stimulants affects behavior in several rodent models.Rats received MPH or cocaine during preadolescence (P20-35). Behavioral studies began during adulthood (P60). We compared how early exposure to MPH and cocaine affects sensitivity to the rewarding and aversive properties of cocaine using place conditioning. We also examined the effects of early exposure to MPH on depressive-like signs using the forced swim test, and habituation of spontaneous locomotion, within activity chambers.In place-conditioning tests, early exposure to MPH or cocaine each made moderate doses of cocaine aversive and high doses less rewarding. Early MPH exposure also caused depressive-like effects in the forced swim test, and it attenuated habituation to the activity chambers.CONCLUSIONS: Early exposure to MPH causes behavioral changes in rats that endure into adulthood. Some changes (reduced sensitivity to cocaine reward) may be beneficial, whereas others (increases in depressive-like signs, reduced habituation) may be detrimental. The effects of MPH on cocaine-related behaviors may be a general consequence of early stimulant exposure.

 

[ckent]

Animal research doesn't always translate into human correlation. I believe that the studies are still pending on the long term benefits or harms regarding stimulant usage. It does seem to decrease the risk of cocaine and drug abuse (which has a higher prevalence in patients with ADHD) in humans though. I would be surprised if we learned or that there were studies that suggested that there was an increased prevalence of depression among users though, because even if it may put you at an increased biological risk, the psychosocial benefit of keeping up with your class may offset that biological mechanism (if it even exists in humans). Also, even though widely accepted among research psychologists, I never fully understood how one could say that just because mice gave up earlier in that swim test that they were actually depressed. Maybe they are just more pessimistic or realistic or something.

 

[Sanman]

I had a friend on prozac for 8 years and have noticed definite changes in his behavior over the years. He was more focused and calmer, but he also was much more serious and had a hard time relaxing and having fun. Though this could also be due to maturity, family problems, etc. Incidentally, I read a study a while back that stated that depressed people had a more realistic outlook on a host of issues than optimistic people. On an aside I just read a newspaper article that quoted a study talking about how the age of mothers inc. to 25.1 years. I wonder if this connects to the recent inc. in learning disabilities, ADHD,autism, etc. I know that recent articles have stated that the chances of developmental disorders in children have inc steeply when the motheris 28 or older.

 

[Olanzapine]

Originally posted by Sanman
I had a friend on prozac for 8 years and have noticed definite changes in his behavior over the years. He was more focused and calmer, but he also was much more serious and had a hard time relaxing and having fun. Though this could also be due to maturity, family problems, etc. Incidentally, I read a study a while back that stated that depressed people had a more realistic outlook on a host of issues than optimistic people. On an aside I just read a newspaper article that quoted a study talking about how the age of mothers inc. to 25.1 years. I wonder if this connects to the recent inc. in learning disabilities, ADHD,autism, etc. I know that recent articles have stated that the chances of developmental disorders in children have inc steeply when the motheris 28 or older.

The developmental disorders that they are referring to are chromosomal disorders that result from "old eggs" having disjointed chromosomes.