Professionals of all varieties may refer a client or patient for a formal, in-depth evaluation. The main reason is that the professional wants a fuller understanding of the client’s difficulties, symptoms, strengths, and personality. Also of importance to the referring professional is that an evaluation results in objective, data-driven findings and individualized recommendations.

Healthcare providers often refer patients for testing when there is a degree of uncertainty about how to help the patient. Diagnoses and treatment readiness, as well as appropriateness for certain interventions, may be unclear without specialized evaluation. This can be the case with prescribers. A prescriber may not prescribe certain psychotropic drugs unless there is sufficient evidence that the patient is suitable for the specific medication and its intended application or corresponding diagnostic category.

Many things are revealed by testing. Personality patterns, cognitive strengths and weaknesses, functional impairments, and mental health challenges and symptoms are revealed in detail through the evaluation process. ADHD, PTSD, OCD, autism, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, neurocognitive disorders (e.g. dementia), processing disorders, personality disorders, anxiety disorders, dissociative disorders, learning disabilities (such as dyslexia), communication and social disorders, and countless other conditions are examined. By testing a wide array of variables and gathering large amounts of data, the results can be more specific and more specific treatment recommendations can be made.