Wanting a diagnosis.. Go straight to a neuropsychologist?

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I am 99% certain that I have Asperger Syndrome and I'd like to see a specialist for a diagnosis. I've been searching for a specialized psychologist in my area but I just discovered that people on the WP forums have also seen neuropsychologists for examinations.

I am uninsured and recently came into a few thousand dollars that I would like to use for healthcare. My goal is to get a professional diagnosis and then get medication for social anxiety and depression (both caused by my condition). At this time I have no desire to receive therapy.

Would it be better to go straight to a neuropsychologist for a diagnosis or is there any benefit from getting the examination from a psychologist that specializes in Autism? I'm located in the Dallas area so I have plenty of options; I'm just not sure which I should choose!

A neuro-psych looks at the physiology of the brain. Since the brains of people on the spectrum are virtually indistinguishable from those NOT on the spectrum you won't get any DX from a neuro-psych.
I suggest finding a psyck in your area who specializes in ASD and perhaps has some background in diagnosing adults.
Best of luck to you!

WritersBlock, while I appreciate your input, I feel your information is inaccurate and I believe people wishing to be examined for many mental conditions could benefit from a neuropsychologist.

Because I could not have said it better, I'll quote an article I read earlier.
"..in a nutshell, the neuropsychologist administers a series of tests designed to measure how the child receives information, stores, uses and then expresses that information. For an excellent site detailing exactly what is measured, please check out Brainsource.
From "Neuropsychological Assessment in Asperger's Syndrome"

Unfortunately I am unable to post links to the above websites.

Which begs the question: If you already thought you had the answer, why post the question? If you're simply looking for confirmation on a decision you've already made it would've been very helpful to have posted that as well.

Oh- go back and read my post again to make sure you more accurately paraphrase from it.

I don't think I have the answer, that's why I'm here. I believe both psychologist and neuropsychologist would be able to diagnose Autism, but there are other factors that wold help me come to a decision, such as skill/accuracy, thoroughness and cost.

My main reason for asking is I had seen one post where a person's psychologist suggested they get a second diagnosis from a neuropsychologist. Is it common for a diagnosed person to need a second examination? Which is why I'm asking; should I go straight to a neuropsychologist which I assume would cost a great deal more, or would a psychologist get the job done well enough for an adult (as opposed to a child who would get much more out of a diagnosis).

This is just my opinion, and I'm certainly not an expert.

Psychologists (for our family) have been fairly decent for assessments. Although the one we dealt with missed some very key points concerning my son, she certainly did illustrate a lot of things about him that we didn't understand. Psychologists do NOT prescribe medicine.

Psychiatrists DO prescribe medicine, but in our experience, our child psych has not once in 3 years spent any time speaking with our now 12 year old son. We go in, he talks and talks about medicines, dosages etc.... but certainly has never answered the "why?"'s.

So, in my opinion, even if it costs more, I'd get assessed by a neuropsych, who would ALSO be able to prescribe medicine if needed.

Good luck!

Just find whoever specialises in ASDs in your area and book an appointment. Neuropsychology isn't 100% relaible YET, but it will be, just need more data on ASD brains.

A neuropsychologist looks at how well you are able to perform various tasks, such as as auditory recall, visual-motor coordination, etc. There *are* certain patterns of deficits which are associated with Asperger syndrome- Aspies tend to have very uneven intellectual profiles and according to some sources, 80% meet the critiera for a nonverbal learning disability. Unless they have a learning disability, NTs tend to have much flatter profiles. And then of course, neuropsychologists have all the training of a regular clinical psychologist for making diagnoses. As long as the neuropsych is familiar with autism/AS/NLD, I think a neuropsychologist would be an excellent choice for getting a diagnosis, especially if you need accommodations for school/work or need to apply for SSI or something like that, since they can identify your areas of strength and weakness.

Now for my diagnosis rant: I personally think a speech pathologist who works with autistics would *also* be an excellent choice for diagnosis, and would probably do a much better job than a large percentage of psychologists out there (unless they are ASD specialists). Just one problem- speech pathologists are not allowed to diagnose ASDs! In my opinion, it is completely ridiculous that a general practitioner of medicine who had a single lecture on autism is allowed to diagnose autism, while a speech pathologist who is an expert in language, pragmatics, and cognition and who may be *specializing* in autism is not allowed to diagnose it. Speech pathologists even give many of the same tests as neuropsychologists, and can give you the same run-down of your cognitive profile.
Okay, rant over. Sorry, not sure why this post triggered that particular rant, but whatever.

Neuropsychologists cannot prescribe medicine. They are basically just clinical psychologists with some additional specialized training. They are not medical doctors (psychiatrists are).

One last post:

Vobili, this would be my advice:

If one of the possible diagnosticians specializes in autism (particularly in adults), I would go with them. If they are both specialists, or if neither are, I would probably go with the neuropsychologist, because at least a neuropsychologist ignorant of ASDs can still go, "Whoa, Nellie, that is a crazy cognitive pattern. There is clearly something funky going on here," while a regular psychologist ignorant of ASDs is more likely to say, "Oh, you just have anxiety/depression/bipolar disorder/BPD, etc". Long story short, a neuropsychologist can probably tell you more about how your brain works than a typical clinical psychologist (in my opinion/experience). That is just a generalization however. You might want to interview both and decide what you think about them, and how knowledgeable they seem.

By neuropsych, I meant neuropsych-iatrist.

Gotcha. The OP asked about neuropsychologists however, which is why I assumed that is what you meant.

Thank you Lost, that was incredibly helpful advice! I'll focus my search on folks that have an extensive knowledge of adults with Asperger's and go from there. So far I've found one Autism center and two highly recommended psychologists that deal mainly with children but still see adults.. I wonder if that would be good enough if I'm not able to find a neuropsychologist with a good knowledge of Autism

TOTALLY understandable!

You're welcome! Good luck with your search. I do definitely recommend interviewing the possible psychologists and finding out how much they work with adults. If if they are knowledgeable about ASDs in adults, they are probably good choices. You can also see how they strike you- do they seem open-minded and willing to listen to your point of view, or are they too wrapped up in themselves to ever consider another opinion?