APOE Genetic Testing for Alzheimer’s Risk: What It Can and Cannot Tell You
APOE genetic testing can feel both useful and unsettling because it gives information about future Alzheimer’s risk, not a simple yes-or-no answer. A result...
ASQ Suicide Screening: What It Measures and When It Is Used
Suicide risk can be difficult to recognize from appearance, mood, or the reason someone came to a clinic or emergency department. Some people who...
ASRS ADHD Test: What It Measures and What Results Mean
The ASRS is a brief questionnaire used to screen for adult ADHD symptoms. It can be a useful starting point when problems with focus,...
At-Home Cognitive Tests: What They Can and Cannot Tell You
At-home cognitive tests can be useful when memory, focus, language, planning, or mental speed feels different than it used to. They can give you...
AUDIT vs AUDIT-C: Alcohol Screening Tests Explained
Alcohol screening tests can help identify drinking patterns that may be affecting health, safety, mood, sleep, relationships, or daily functioning. AUDIT and AUDIT-C are...
Autism Screening in Toddlers: Early Signs and Common Tests
Autism can often be recognized earlier than many families expect, but the first clues are not always dramatic. A toddler may be affectionate, active,...
Autism Testing in Adults: How Adult Autism Is Diagnosed
Many adults seek an autism evaluation after years of feeling different, exhausted by social demands, unusually sensitive to certain environments, or repeatedly misunderstood at...
Autism Testing in Children: What the Full Diagnostic Workup Looks Like
When a child is referred for autism testing, families are often trying to understand much more than whether one label fits. They want to...
Autism vs ADHD: How Doctors Tell the Difference
Autism and ADHD can look similar from the outside. A child may seem distracted, avoid eye contact, have big reactions to changes, talk intensely...
Baseline Concussion Testing for Athletes: When It Helps, When It Doesn’t, and Who Needs It
A concussion can affect attention, memory, reaction time, balance, vision, sleep, mood, and school or work performance. In sports, the challenge is that no...
Behavioral Health Screening in Schools: What Students and Parents Should Expect
Behavioral health screening in schools is meant to identify students who may be struggling socially, emotionally, behaviorally, or psychologically before problems become harder to...
Biomarkers in Brain and Mental Health: What Counts as a Biomarker and Why It Matters
Biomarkers can make brain and mental health care feel more concrete: a blood result, a scan finding, a spinal fluid measure, a genetic result,...
Bipolar Disorder Screening: How Doctors Screen for Bipolar Symptoms
Bipolar disorder is often first suspected when a person seeks help for depression, mood swings, poor sleep, impulsive behavior, irritability, or changes in energy...
Bipolar Disorder vs ADHD: How Doctors Tell the Difference
Bipolar disorder and ADHD can overlap in ways that make diagnosis difficult. Both can involve distractibility, restlessness, impulsive decisions, rapid speech, emotional intensity, and...
Blood Biomarker Tests for Alzheimer’s Disease: What Is Available, What They Show, and What It Means
Blood tests are changing how Alzheimer’s disease is evaluated, especially for people who already have memory loss, mild cognitive impairment, or other cognitive symptoms....
Blood Sugar and A1C Testing for Brain Fog and Cognitive Symptoms
Brain fog can feel vague, but the testing approach should be specific. When poor concentration, mental fatigue, word-finding trouble, irritability, or “spaced out” episodes...
Blood Tests for Brain Fog: What Doctors Usually Check
Brain fog can feel like slow thinking, poor concentration, forgetfulness, word-finding trouble, mental fatigue, or a sense that everyday tasks take more effort than...
Blood Tests for Depression and Anxiety: Medical Causes Doctors Rule Out
Depression and anxiety are diagnosed mainly through symptoms, history, clinical judgment, and validated screening tools. A blood test cannot confirm that someone has major...
Blood Tests for Memory Loss: Common Labs in Cognitive Workups
Memory changes can come from many different causes: sleep loss, medication effects, thyroid disease, vitamin deficiencies, depression, delirium, stroke, neurodegenerative disease, alcohol use, infection,...
Borderline Personality Disorder Assessment: How Doctors Evaluate BPD Symptoms
Borderline personality disorder is assessed through a careful clinical evaluation, not a single blood test, brain scan, or quick questionnaire. Doctors look for long-standing...