title: [About the necessity of neuropsychological assessment in the civil law].
abstract: Giving expert opinions within legal psychiatry in civil cases requires more and more strict co-operation of expert psychiatrists with psychologists. Assessment of the cognitive functions with the help of neuropsychological methods is an important diagnostic element that leads to giving the right opinion. The most frequent reasons for appointing experts in psychiatry and psychology are disorders of cognitive functions as a result of various brain injuries. Dementia syndromes are particularly often subjects of doubts in preparing expert opinions as they must be distinguished from other organic dysfunctions and from the age--associated memory impairment. Considering the evidence value the most important thing is to assess all the objective data included in the medical records and subsequently to assess the testimony of the witnesses Usually people from legal circles and families of the people who make declarations of will overvalue the importance of additional examinations. Those examinations are important but they do not settle the patient's psychic state because the decisive factor is not the kind of somatic disease but the influence of that disease on the psychic state. The neuropsychologist's role in giving medical statements is going to increase together with the tendency to objectivization and qualitative assessment of intensification of respective disorders of cognitive functions when examining patients in order to give expert opinions.
authors.affiliation: Instytutu Psychologii Uniwersytetu Gdańskiego.
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Radziwiłłowicz
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Radziwiłłowicz
mesh_terms: D001921:Brain / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002959:Civil Defense / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005104:Expert Testimony; D006801:Humans; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests