神經心理在腦與心智醫學的應用

Practice of Neuropsychology in Brain and Mind Medicine

神經心理學是一門綜合腦與心智的科學。北美和歐洲國家，在1950 至1960 年代左右，最早將該學門的理論知識應用於臨床上。爾後該學科對於腦部相關疾病之診斷和治療具有相當卓著的貢獻。在台灣，神經心理學知識實際應用於臨床實務則遲至20 世紀之末。儘管神經心理學對病患的診療扮演重要的角色，許多與腦部疾病診療相關的醫療專業人士仍對該學科缺乏充分的認識。有鑑於此，本文旨在介紹臨床神經心理學在臨床場所中所扮演的角色。主要的內容包括：神經心理學的源起、神經心理檢查的基本概念、目的和臨床功用。

Neuropsychology is a discipline combing both brain and mental sciences, and its formal debut in clinical settings in North America and European countries dated back to 1950s-1960s. Its contributions to clinical diagnosis and treatment in patients with brain and related diseases have been well known. In Taiwan, the practice of neuropsychology does not come into view until the end of twentieth century. Despite that such a practice plays an important role in patients’ medical care, quite a few medical and related professionals might not have a full idea of it. In this article, we thus made an attempt to depict the role of clinical neuropsychology in clinical settings. The primary contents include the origin of neuropsychology, the basic concepts of neuropsychological assessment, and the purposes and the clinical utilities of the assessment.