Serial Assessment in the Older Patient

Neuropsychologists are regularly asked to determine if a meaningful amount of change has occurred between two or more assessments of the same individual. The current chapter seeks to inform clinicians and researchers about the strengths and weaknesses of two popular methods of assessing reliable change: Reliable Change Index controlling for practice effects (RCI_pe), and the Standardized Regression-Based (SRB). New data is also presented on how these methods can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of an intervention in older patients. Although the serial assessment of an individual patient and groups of research participants can be complicated, the calculation of RCI_pe and SRB are manageable and can provide valuable information for determining the natural progression of an existing condition, the amount of recovery following a neurological insult, or the effectiveness of a treatment.