Your provider ran a Creyos battery. Or maybe an online ADHD quiz gave you a score. These tools have a role, but they are not a diagnosis, and they're not a substitute for a comprehensive evaluation. Here's why the difference matters.
What Creyos Actually Is
Creyos (formerly Cambridge Brain Sciences) is a computerized cognitive screening platform used primarily in primary care and research settings. It measures things like working memory, processing speed, and attention through brief gamified tasks. It's efficient, easy to administer, and produces a numeric score.
It is not a neuropsychological assessment. It is a screening tool.
The distinction matters enormously, and it's one that gets lost in clinical settings where time is short and computerized tools feel authoritative.
What a Screening Tool Can and Can't Do
Screening tools are designed to flag people who might need further evaluation. They're like the temperature check at the doctor's office: useful for detecting that something might be off, but not sufficient for explaining what's wrong or guiding treatment.
A computerized cognitive battery like Creyos can identify that someone's working memory score falls below a certain threshold. What it cannot tell you:
- •Why: Is the score low because of ADHD, anxiety, a learning disability, sleep deprivation, depression, early dementia, or the fact that they were distracted during the test?
- •What it means functionally: A score tells you nothing about how deficits show up in real life: at work, in relationships, managing finances, or regulating emotions.
- •What to do about it: Screening results don't generate treatment recommendations, accommodations, or a roadmap for support.
- •The full picture: Cognitive tests measure performance at a single moment. They don't capture developmental history, psychiatric context, cultural factors, or the decades of lived experience behind the score.
What a Comprehensive Assessment Actually Involves
A comprehensive neuropsychological or psychological assessment is a multi-session, clinician-led process that integrates multiple sources of data:
- •Clinical interview: A detailed conversation covering developmental history, academic and occupational functioning, psychiatric history, family history, and the specific concerns bringing you in
- •Standardized cognitive testing: Multiple measures across domains including attention, memory, language, executive function, and processing speed, normed for your age, education, and demographic group
- •Behavioral and emotional measures: Validated rating scales assessing ADHD, anxiety, depression, trauma, personality, and autism traits
- •Collateral information: School records, prior evaluations, or input from family members when relevant and consented to
- •Integration and interpretation: A licensed neuropsychologist synthesizes all data into a coherent diagnostic picture with specific, actionable recommendations
This process typically takes 4–8 hours of testing spread across 1–3 sessions, plus a clinical interview and a feedback appointment. It produces a written report that can be used by therapists, physicians, schools, employers, insurance companies, and courts.
The Real Cost of Under-Evaluation
Getting a low Creyos score - or a high score on a self-report ADHD screener - and stopping there is not neutral. It often leads to:
- •Medication prescribed without adequate differential diagnosis - treating a symptom without knowing the cause
- •Missing a co-occurring condition that's actually driving the problem (anxiety, a learning disability, early cognitive decline, autism)
- •Inadequate documentation for school, workplace, or legal accommodations - many institutions require a comprehensive evaluation, not a screening result
- •Continued self-doubt and confusion when the "diagnosis" doesn't fully account for your experience
When Is a Screening Tool Enough?
To be clear: screening tools are not useless. Creyos and similar platforms are valuable in primary care settings where a full neuropsychological workup isn't warranted for every patient. They can identify people who need a referral. They can track cognitive change over time in a research context. Used correctly, they serve a real purpose.
But if you are seeking clarity about a diagnosis - if you want to understand why you've struggled in specific ways, whether you qualify for accommodations, or what treatment approach is actually right for you - a screening tool cannot give you that. It is a starting point, not a destination.
What to Look for in a Comprehensive Evaluation
If you're pursuing a full assessment, look for a licensed psychologist or neuropsychologist who:
- •Conducts a thorough clinical interview before any testing begins
- •Uses multiple standardized measures - not just one test or one questionnaire
- •Produces a written report that explains findings in plain language with specific recommendations
- •Offers a feedback session to walk you through the results
- •Is familiar with how your specific population - by age, gender, culture, or background - presents on the measures being used
You deserve an evaluation that takes the full complexity of your experience seriously. Anything less is a shortcut that costs you clarity.
Get the answers you actually need.
AnchorPoint Assessments provides comprehensive psychological and neuropsychological evaluations in Denver, CO, with full written reports, detailed recommendations, and a feedback session included in every assessment.