Case History Outline

Author's Note

There exist a vast array of tools clinicians use for diagnostic purposes.   Amongst them one finds specific psychometric instruments, selective protocols, and models based upon one theory or another.

Essential to the choice of the specific diagnostic approach are considerations regarding the objectives of the assessment, and the use to which the findings will be put to. Recent research has strongly demonstrated that strong consideration should also be given to historical, genetic, and environmental correlates.

As an example, IQ may not be a valid predictor of academic and professional success in the absence of a context regarding developmental maturity. Neuropsych has also held the position that the degree of impairment following neurological insults is strongly correlated with previous knowledge and adjustment.

Research in Alzheimer's proffers on the correlation of cognitive underdevelopment, and/or inactivity, to an increase in incidence. Such findings have served to exemplify Ackerman's view that the environment will either enhance or inhibit the probability of what is innate, or latent to become manifest.

  Nowhere is this more applicable than in the area of diagnostics where part of the objective is an accurate and valid assessment. To engage in such a venture, in the absence of a careful analysis of the context and evolution of a malady, or dysfunction, would almost seem absurd.

It is therefore offered that regardless of the instrumentation, or theoretical basis, a historical perspective is indispensable to any diagnostic evaluation. What follows is a logistical protocol whose emphasis is in the collection of historical data along a compliment of parameters.   This is done in the interest of elevating diagnostics from a two dimensional medical model to a three dimensional psychosocial and developmental process.