Question: What is the difference between a neurologist and a neuropsychologist?

Sallie Baxendale answered on 27 Jun 2012:

Good question! A neurologist is a doctor who treats people when something has gone wrong with their brain. They rely on all sorts of tests (and other doctors) to work out what has gone wrong. So they might ask a neuroradiologist to look at a scan, a neurophysiologist to look at the patients brainwaves and a neuropsychologist to look at how well the brain is actually working. When the neurologist gets all the tests results back he can figure out whats wrong and work out the best way to treat them. A neuropsychologist specialises in working out which bits of the brain aren’t working properly. The different problems people have on our tests tells us what is most likley to be going wrong. So, for example we can work out whether someone has a bad memory because they are feeling a bit depressed or because they have dementia. This makes a big difference to the patient. Their memory can get better if they are depressed but it wont if they have dementia.