Journal of neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry
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J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatr. · Feb 2014
A structural MRI study of motor conversion disorder: evidence of reduction in thalamic volume.
To investigate potential abnormalities in subcortical brain structures in conversion disorder (CD) compared with controls using a region of interest (ROI) approach. ⋯ These differences may reflect a primary disease process in this area or be secondary effects of the disorder, for example, resulting from limb disuse. Larger, longitudinal structural imaging studies will be required to confirm the findings and explore whether they are primary or secondary to CD.
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J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatr. · Feb 2014
Depressive symptoms in Parkinson's disease are related to reduced [123I]FP-CIT binding in the caudate nucleus.
Depression is a common neuropsychiatric symptom in Parkinson's disease (PD). In previous research, PD-related depression was associated with striatal dopaminergic deficits, presumably due to degeneration of brainstem dopaminergic projections. Segregated areas of the striatum are crucially involved in various parallelly arranged cortical-striatal-thalamocortical circuits and serve functions in, among others, motor control or emotion. This suggests regional specificity of dopaminergic deficits in the striatum in motor and depressive symptoms in PD. ⋯ These results suggest that depressive symptoms in PD are associated with dopamine loss in the caudate nucleus, possibly related to degeneration of dopaminergic projections from the ventral tegmental area, while motor symptoms are associated with low dopamine signalling to the putamen and loss of nigrostriatal projections. This is consistent with the neuroanatomy of partially segregated cortical-striatal-thalamocortical circuits and supports the role of dysfunctional associative and motivational circuits in PD-related depression.
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J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatr. · Feb 2014
The elbow flex-ex: a new sign to detect unilateral upper extremity non-organic paresis.
To examine a new neurological sign that uses synergistic oppositional movements of the arms to evaluate for non-organic upper extremity weakness. ⋯ The elbow flex-ex sign is useful in differentiating between functional and organic arm paresis.
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J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatr. · Feb 2014
Unity of opposites? Chronic fatigue syndrome and the challenge of divergent perspectives in guideline development.
Guideline development by its nature is a process and method of integration and synthesis of information, be it originating from research, evidence-based medicine, clinical findings, patient experience and/or individual narratives of an illness or disease. In the majority of cases, it can be assumed that this information and these ideas are travelling in the same direction; however, it is possible that the objective and subjective cannot be synthesised, and appear mutually contradictory. ⋯ We propose that, if followed, this document would lead to the adoption of dangerous diagnostic criteria for ME/CFS, as well as preventing patients from making informed decisions about treatment options, and discouraging clinicians from following evidence-based medicine and recommending proven treatments for ME/CFS, because of potential implications for future commissioning. This commentary seeks to highlight some of the problems, contradictions and unintended consequences of a divergence between patient perspectives and evidence-based medicine despite probably sharing the same aim, that of improving patient care and striving for better understanding and better treatments for disease.
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Déjà vu can occur as an aura of temporal lobe epilepsy and in some psychiatric conditions but is also common in the general population. It is unclear whether any clinical features distinguish pathological and physiological forms of déjà vu. ⋯ Déjà vu is common and qualitatively similar whether it occurs as an epileptic aura or normal phenomenon. However ictal déjà vu occurs more frequently and is accompanied by several distinctive features. It is distinguished primarily by 'the company it keeps'.