About Dr. Santa Maria's Practice
Scope of Practice:
Dr. Santa Maria’s practice focuses on neuropsychological evaluation of adults and children.
Neuropsychological evaluations are commonly requested for the purposes of:
- Diagnostic clarification.
- Quantification of cognitive impairment due to neurological or psychiatric disease.
- Determination of disability due to neurological or psychiatric disease.
- Injury-related litigation.
- Capacity, guardianship, and placement issues.
- FAA airman cognitive evaluations (CogScreen-AE, HIMS-trained)
- Presurgical evaluations (spinal cord stimulator, pain medication pump, bariatric surgery).
Frequently evaluated populations include:
- Traumatic brain injury (TBI)
- Alzheimer’s and other progressive dementias
- Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI)
- Parkinson's disease and Lewy body dementia
- Stroke (CVA) and transient ischemic attack (TIA)
- Multiple sclerosis
- Neoplasm / brain tumor
- Lead (Pb) poisoning / toxic exposure
- ADHD
- Learning Disorders (LD)
- Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD)
- Foreign adoption / domestic adoption
- Intellectual Disability / developmental disabilities
- Autism Spectrum Disorders
- Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders
- Depression, Anxiety, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
- Substance Use
- Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) airman exams (CogScreen-AE, HIMS-trained)
- National Football League (NFL) Baseline Assessment Program
Neuropsychological evaluations serve to quantify a variety of cognitive abilities including:
- Memory
- Intelligence / IQ
- Academic abilities
- Spatial perception
- Language
- Abstract reasoning and problem-solving abilities
- Attention
- Personality
- Ability to manage activities of daily living