The McCarron-Dial System (MDS) has successfully predicted vocational and independent living outcomes with neuropsychologically disabled individuals receiving rehabilitation services. In addition, preliminary validation studies suggest that the abbreviated MDS is useful for clinical neuropsychological diagnosis. The present study represents part of an ongoing research project aimed at validating the expanded version of the MDS for diagnosis of neuropsychological dysfunction. Specifically, it was hypothesized that the expanded MDS would be able to accurately discriminate between brain-damaged and non-brain-damaged individuals. Accurate diagnosis facilitates rehabilitation efforts for individuals with neuropsychological disabilities and the data profile provided by the expanded version of the MDS can consequently form the basis from which more complete individual treatment and rehabilitation plans can be conceptualized.

The present study investigates the effect of brain damage on verbal-spatial-cognitive (VSC) and sensorimotor (SM) measures included in the McCarron-Dial System (MDS). The subjects include 141 brain damaged adults and 42 psychiatric controls. The following research questions are addressed: (a) Does the brain damaged group differ significantly from controls? (b) Are there significant differences among left, right, anterior, posterior, and diffuse brain damaged groups? (c) Do early onset, late onset, acute, and chronic damaged groups differ significantly? and (d) Does a cerebral palsy group differ significantly from a non-CP brain damaged group?