Psychometric testing

Psychometric tests such as personality or aptitude tests. 

Rasmussen K, Jeppesen HJ, Sabroe S. 1993c. Psychometric tests for assessment of brain function after solvent exposure. Am J Ind Med 24 553-565. 

The disciplines of psychiatry, psychology, and neurology are equipped to diagnose disorders of the mind and brain and study the clinical effects of psychoactive herbs. Neuropsychology specializes in brain-behavior relationships and is well equipped to quantify and characterize the mental and behavioral effects of psychoactive herbs by using psychometric tests. In this text, particular attention is paid to objective testing data. 

Nonpsychotic persons also experience impaired performance as judged by a number of psychomotor and psychometric tests. Psychotic individuals, however, may actually show improvement in their performance as the psychosis is alleviated. The ability of the atypical antipsychotic drugs to improve some domains of cognition in patients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder is controversial. Some individuals experience marked improvement and for that reason, cognition should be assessed in all patients with schizophrenia and a trial of an atypical agent considered, even if positive symptoms are well controlled by typical agents. 

Fort A, Mills JN. Influence of sleep, lack of sleep and circadian rhythm on short psychometrics tests. In Colquhoun WP, ed. Aspects of Human Efficiency Diurnal Rhythm and Loss of Sleep. London English University Press, 1972 115-127. 

Support for the evaluation of the non-technical make up of a candidate is very commonly sought by carrying out some form of psychometric tests on the candidates. Psychometric tests are designed to assess either ability (cognitive tests) or personality characteristics and there are three basic types ones to assess a specific ability, e.g. numeracy, verbal and spatial perception ones to test general mental ability, e.g. an-... 

Tata et al. (1994) used psychometric tests to follow up 21 patients 6 months after abstinence from long-term therapeutic doses of prescribed BZs. They also examined 21 normal matched controls. Pre- and postwithdrawal and 6 months afterward, the results demonstrated significant impairment in patients in verbal learning and memory, psychomotor, visuo-motor and visuo-conceptual abilities, compared with controls. Lagnaoui et al. (2002) found increased dementia in elderly patients treated with BZs in a community setting. 

In a placebo-controlled, crossover study in 12 healthy men, lithium and mirtazapine had no effect on the pharmacokinetics of each other and there was no difference in psychometric testing between the addition of lithium and placebo (8). 

Levocetirizine had no deleterious effect on cognitive and psychometric functions compared with placebo, as assessed by a comprehensive battery of psychometric tests in healthy men. 

Of 18 German patients undergoing lumbar myelography with metrizamide, six had an organic psychosis, characterized by impaired memory and depression, but it was demonstrable only by psychometric tests and disappeared within 5 days (415). In four of the 18 patients there was hyporeflexia or areflexia and in three there were electro-encephalographic changes there was no correlation between these various types of effect. 

Based on the results in the literature (which also correspond to our own experience), psychometric test programmes have been developed for use in the hospital and the doctor s surgery. 

Psychometric test set (E. Kuntz, h.-D. Kuntz) This test set facilitates psychodiagnostic monitoring of potential liver-diseased patients, identification of SHE and control of therapeutic measures. In some cases, the very simple four basic tests can be evaluated in their overall assessment with even greater reliability by means of supplementary tests, which are likewise easy to implement. (19) (s. tab. 10.7)... 

Tab. 10.6 Requirements for psychometric test procedures relevant for application in the doctor s surgery...

Tab. 10.7 Psychometric test programme for identification and monitoring of SHE (E. Kuntz, H.-D. Kuntz, 1991) (19)...

In suspected subclinical hepatic encephalopathy, psychometric tests are extremely important for the diagnosis and cannot be substituted by other examination procedures (e.g. anamnesis, inspection, laboratory analysis, imaging). 

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