Can psychologists recognize neurological disorders in their patients?

A variety of insidious neurological disorders may present initially as psychological difficulties. In an effort to determine whether psychologists could recognize these disorders in their patients and refer them to a neurologist or nonneurological physician, a questionnaire containing four clinical vignettes was sent to a total of 566 members of the Los Angeles Psychological Association. Each vignette contained a salient description of an underlying neurological disorder with a psychological presentation. No explicit indication was made that the psychological problem represented an underlying neurological disorder. Each psychologist was instructed to read each vignette carefully and to decide what to recommend for each patient. Analysis of the data revealed that nearly one-third of the psychologists failed to recognize the underlying neurological disorder.