| Much of the practice of clinical neuropsychology is performed in the role of consultant and although the neuropsychologist is dependent upon referrals made from outside sources, relatively little attention has been devoted to the investigation of the referral process. Surveys of clinicians and referral sources have reported breakdowns of referral sources by discipline and general topics of referral questions based on recollection, but direct analysis of referral patterns across the same period has not been undertaken. By examining the referral questions rather than neuropsychologists, or referral sources, recollection of referrals, this study expands what is known about referral content and patterns. To date, no other study has examined the content of referral questions to investigate the practice of clinical neuropsychology. In an effort to explain question content without relying upon recollection, a coding rubric was designed to capture the breadth of presenting problems and requests seen in the original referral questions.;Two-thousand-six-hundred referral questions were selected from the odd year over the 25 year period from 1983 to 2007, yielding a total of 2600 referral questions. Cochran's Kappa was used to conduct interrater reliability analyses in three stages across the entire rating process. Content analysis showed that 79.1% of all questions had at more than minimal content. The most common request was for assistance with diagnostic considerations, which was present in 66.4% of all cases. Assistance with differential diagnoses was requested in 27.4% of all cases with the majority of these composed of requests for assistance in differentiating between psychiatric and neurological or other medical considerations. There was evidence for a trend over time in the gradual decline of requests for assistance with psychiatric differential diagnosis and requests for the MMPI from 1993 to the present. Memory problems and dementia are the most common presenting problems, although there is evidence of a slight decline in these evaluations beginning in 1997. Requests for specific recommendations, particularly those related to making recommendations regarding treatment planning were found to steadily increase across the sampling period. Limitations and implications for practice were discussed. |
