Journal of neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry
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J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatr. · Dec 2019
Randomized Controlled TrialLong-term safety and efficacy of deutetrabenazine for the treatment of tardive dyskinesia.
To evaluate the long-term safety and efficacy of deutetrabenazine in patients with tardive dyskinesia (TD). ⋯ Overall, long-term treatment with deutetrabenazine was efficacious, safe, and well tolerated in patients with TD.
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J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatr. · Dec 2019
Multicenter StudyPredicting symptomatic intracranial haemorrhage after mechanical thrombectomy: the TAG score.
There is limited data on predictors of symptomatic intracranial haemorrhage (sICH) in patients who underwent mechanical thrombectomy. In this study, we aim to determine those predictors with external validation. ⋯ High TAG scores are associated with sICH in patients receiving mechanical thrombectomy. Larger studies are needed to validate this scoring system and test strategies to reduce sICH risk and make thrombectomy safer in patients with elevated TAG scores.
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Anxiety is an adaptive response that promotes harm avoidance, but at the same time excessive anxiety constitutes the most common psychiatric complaint. Moreover, current treatments for anxiety-both psychological and pharmacological-hover at around 50% recovery rates. Improving treatment outcomes is nevertheless difficult, in part because contemporary interventions were developed without an understanding of the underlying neurobiological mechanisms that they modulate. ⋯ In this article, we discuss the distinction between fear and anxiety, before reviewing translational research on the neural circuitry of anxiety in animal models and how it relates to human neuroimaging studies across both healthy and clinical populations. We highlight the roles of subcortical regions (and their subunits) such as the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, the amgydala, and the hippocampus, as well as their connectivity to cortical regions such as dorsal medial and lateral prefrontal/cingulate cortex and insula in maintaining anxiety responding. We discuss how this circuitry might be modulated by current treatments before finally highlighting areas for future research that might ultimately improve treatment outcomes for this common and debilitating transdiagnostic symptom.
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J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatr. · Dec 2019
Randomized Controlled TrialDimethyl fumarate decreases neurofilament light chain in CSF and blood of treatment naïve relapsing MS patients.
In a prospective phase IV trial of the first-line oral treatment dimethyl fumarate (DMF), we examined dynamics of neurofilament light (NFL) chain in serum, plasma and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples collected over 12 months from relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) patients. NFL changes were related to disease activity. ⋯ This study provides Class II evidence that first-line DMF reduces NFL in both blood and CSF after 6 months and normalises CSF levels in 73% of patients. High NFL concentration in CSF after a year reflected disease activity. NFL levels were higher in serum than in plasma, which should be considered when NFL is used as a biomarker.