Personal Injury Law

Ruff Disputes Claim That Everyone Gets Better (Part 1)

By Bruce Stern

Dr. Ron Ruff was the one of the invited opening speakers at Friday's World Congress on Brain Injury. Dr. Ruff is an active faculty member at the University of California at San Francisco in the Department of Psychiatry and at Stanford in the Division of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. He is widely published in prominent professional journals and texts. He lectures extensively, both as a consultant to and a member of professional organizations. He is the past President of the National Academy of Neuropsychology, and past-member of the California Board of Psychology.

Dr. Ruff's invited topic was Controversies in ABI (acquired brain injury). He was asked to speak about the limitations and weaknesses of neuropsychology and specifically did not address the strengths, noting he could speak for days on that topic.

Dr. Ruff first discussed the issue of test retest and the learning effect of taking multiple tests. Dr. Ruff referenced studies where even normal controls did better on subsequent testing. Dr. Ruff stated that neuropsychologists need to factor in medication effects and fatigue when interpreting neuropsychological testing.

Dr. Ruff discussed the ecological validity of testing and whether neuropsychologists can predict the effect of TBI on executive functioning as it pertains to every day activities of daily living. He called for the need to perform a patient based perspective, looking at the not only the cognitive issues but physical and emotional as well. As a result Dr. Ruff has developed the Ruff Neurobehavioral Inventory which allows the neuropsychologist to compare the patient's subjective appraisal of one's pre and post morbid life after injury. He noted that the MMPI and other similar tests are not able to separate pre and post injury differences.

Full post as published by Traumatic Brain Injury Law Blog on March 17, 2010 (boomark / email).