Journal of neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry
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J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatr. · May 2017
Observational StudyObserving conversational laughter in frontotemporal dementia.
We performed an observational study of laughter during seminaturalistic conversations between patients with dementia and familial caregivers. Patients were diagnosed with (1) behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD), (2) right temporal variant frontotemporal dementia (rtFTD), (3) semantic variant of primary progressive aphasia (svPPA), (4) non-fluent variant primary progressive aphasia (nfvPPA) or (5) early onset Alzheimer's disease (eoAD). We hypothesised that those with bvFTD would laugh less in response to their own speech than other dementia groups or controls, while those with rtFTD would laugh less regardless of who was speaking. ⋯ Laughter in response to one's own vocalisations or those of a conversational partner may be a clinically useful measure in dementia diagnosis.
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J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatr. · May 2017
Are psychogenic non-epileptic seizures just another symptom of conversion disorder?
Psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES) are classified with other functional neurological symptoms as 'Conversion Disorder', but there are reasons to wonder whether this symptomatology constitutes a distinct entity. ⋯ We argue that the aetiological and mechanistic distinctions they support, particularly when bolstered by additional data, give reason to sustain a separation between these conditions.
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J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatr. · May 2017
Editorial CommentNew ideas on the ALS Functional Rating Scale.