Neuropsych sub specialities

[newtoneurop]

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Hi everyone! I am completing my first neuropsych practicum and have noticed some tension between the neuropsychologists. I was curious, is there like an internal “ranking” of neuropsych sub specialities (like adult vs peds). My supervisor (for adult neuropsych) seems to really not respect the peds neuropsychologists. I’m curious if this is a site specific thing or a broader thing in neuro culture? Similarly, she doesn’t seem to think much of the rehab psychologists.

 

[PsyDr]

I would imagine it's more:

"pediatric neuropsychologist who diagnoses ADHD, LD, ASD, etc"
vs
"pediatric neuropsychologist who diagnoses Angelman syndrome, or is involved in Wada testing."

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

I think there is a more noticeable split between fellowship trained v not, especially the "dabble on weekends" type or generalists who take a weekend course and think they can just become a specialist (whether that be neuro, rehab, health, etc).

For some people, there is a split between neuro v rehab+neuro fellowships. I haven't stayed up with the particulars over the past decade or so, but there has also been a shift in the field that made the nit-picking a bit less applicable. Neuro and Rehab have crossover, and it irked some in neuro bak when I trained that rehab also did neuropsych testing, though at some point, neuro started crossing more over the rehab and that ruffled feathers too; this is where day-to-day practice blurs a bit.

Someone more in the know can speak to this better, as there have been multiple gatherings by Div 40 and Div 22 over the past decade meant to address some of this. Once I left my last AMC, I stopped tracking and caring as much about this kind of stuff.

The bottom line is competency and scope of practice. Much like a psychiatrist does perform general surgery, even if their licensure allows it. Clinicians should only work in areas they have adequate training. Practically, splitting hairs is mostly ego, but some people still care.

Edited to simplify, as there is a lot of behind the scenes stuff aka “politics”, so I cut that stuff out.

 

[WisNeuro]

I think there is a more noticeable split between fellowship trained v not, especially the "dabble on weekends" type or generalists who take a weekend course and think they can just become a specialist (whether that be neuro, rehab, health, etc).

This is the only tension I've seen in my training and practice.

 

[jdawg2017]

This is the only tension I've seen in my training and practice.

Same here. I’d also say there is definitely is a tension between research-only vs. clinical-only neuropsychologists, but I think that issue extends to all of clinical psychology (and probably medicine, broadly).

The only ranking that matters is what YOU want to do day-to-day. I will say, though, that I wish more adult neuropsychologists got some training in peds. Neurodevelopment/educational background are foundational to understanding the context in which an adult patient’s scores occur, and I feel like there’s a good share of neuropsychologists who do not pay enough attention to this fact.