Journal of neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry
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J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatr. · Nov 2012
QOLIBRI overall scale: a brief index of health-related quality of life after traumatic brain injury.
The quality of life after brain injury (QOLIBRI) scale is a recently developed instrument that provides a profile of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in domains typically affected by brain injury. However, for global assessment it is desirable to have a brief summary measure. This study examined a 6-item QOLIBRI overall scale (QOLIBRI-OS), and considered whether it could provide an index of HRQoL after traumatic brain injury (TBI). ⋯ The QOLIBRI-OS assesses a similar construct to the QOLIBRI total score and can be used as a brief index of HRQoL for TBI.
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J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatr. · Nov 2012
Clinical TrialEvaluation of cognitive impairment by the Montreal cognitive assessment in patients with aneurysmal subarachnoid haemorrhage: prevalence, risk factors and correlations with 3 month outcomes.
Identification of patients with aneurysmal subarachnoid haemorrhage (aSAH) with cognitive impairment is important for patient management (medical treatment, cognitive rehabilitation and social arrangements). The Montreal cognitive assessment (MoCA) is currently recommended over the mini-mental state examination (MMSE) by the U.S. National Institute of Neurological Disorder, in the chronic post-stroke setting. We hypothesised that the MoCA has a better correlation with functional outcome at 3 months than the MMSE. ⋯ MoCA defined cognitive impairment was common at 3 months after aSAH and MoCA correlated with functional outcomes similar, but not superior, to the MMSE. The study is registered at ClinicalTrials.gov of the US National Institutes of Health (NCT01038193).
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J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatr. · Nov 2012
Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter StudyMultiple sclerosis and extract of cannabis: results of the MUSEC trial.
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is associated with chronic symptoms, including muscle stiffness, spasms, pain and insomnia. Here we report the results of the Multiple Sclerosis and Extract of Cannabis (MUSEC) study that aimed to substantiate the patient based findings of previous studies. ⋯ The study met its primary objective to demonstrate the superiority of CE over placebo in the treatment of muscle stiffness in MS. This was supported by results for secondary efficacy variables. Adverse events in participants treated with CE were consistent with the known side effects of cannabinoids. No new safety concerns were observed.
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J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatr. · Nov 2012
Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter StudyThe LaLiMo Trial: lamotrigine compared with levetiracetam in the initial 26 weeks of monotherapy for focal and generalised epilepsy--an open-label, prospective, randomised controlled multicenter study.
Of the newer antiepileptic drugs, lamotrigine (LTG) and levetiracetam (LEV) are popular first choice drugs for epilepsy. The authors compared these drugs with regard to their efficacy and tolerability in the initial monotherapy for epilepsy. ⋯ ClinicalTrials.gov identifier NCT00242606.