Neuropsychiatry

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Neuropsychiatry, as a subspecialty of Psychiatry, is the branch of medicine dealing with mental disorders attributable to diseases of the nervous system. It is closely related to the field of Behavioral Neurology, which is a subspecialty of Neurology that addresses clinical problems of cognition and/or behavior caused by brain injury or brain disease. Indeed, Behavioral Neurology / Neuropsychiatry is recognized as a single subspecialty by the United Council for Neurologic Subspecialties (UCNS).

Another closely related discipline is neuropsychology - with its roots in neurology and psychology. It focuses more on psychological testing procedures, and is practised by clinical psychologists who have further training in neuropsychology.

Nowadays, these three related disciplines play important interactive and somewhat different roles in brain-behavior studies. Where an individual scientist falls on this spectrum is often an accident of training rather than a result of knowledge, skills, or interest.