Journal of neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry
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J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatr. · Sep 2003
Predictors of institutionalisation in people with dementia.
To identify what patient and carer characteristics influence transition into residential care for people with dementia. ⋯ These findings powerfully illustrate the pivotal role carried out by carers of people with dementia; interventions directly targeted at helping them to maintain this role would be supported by these data. These data also suggest that strategies directed at improving carer quality of life and at the resolution of behavioural disorder in the person with dementia may also have particular value.
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J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatr. · Sep 2003
CSF galanin and cognition after shunt surgery in normal pressure hydrocephalus.
"Normal" pressure hydrocephalus (NPH) is associated with injury to neurotransmitter and neuropeptide systems that recovers after surgery. This could be linked to changes in galanin, a neuropeptide with inhibitory effects on basal forebrain cognitive function. ⋯ The cognitive and clinical improvement after shunt implantation correlated with CSF galanin levels, suggesting that the distribution or function of this agent involves cerebral structures that have some potential for recovery. In this study, galanin was related to several cognitive functions that may be associated with the fronto-subcortical deficits underlying cognitive dysfunction in normal pressure hydrocephalus.
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J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatr. · Sep 2003
Comparative StudyPerformance on the dementia rating scale in Parkinson's disease with dementia and dementia with Lewy bodies: comparison with progressive supranuclear palsy and Alzheimer's disease.
The relation between dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) and Parkinson's disease with dementia (PDD) is unknown. ⋯ The cognitive profiles of patients with DLB and PDD were similar, but they differed from those of patients with Alzheimer's disease and progressive supranuclear palsy. The cognitive pattern in DLB and PDD probably reflects the superimposition of subcortical deficits upon deficits typically associated with Alzheimer's disease.
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J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatr. · Sep 2003
Comparative StudyPhysical anhedonia in Parkinson's disease.
Anhedonia is the inability to experience physical or social pleasure. Its physical component is hypothesised to be due to dysfunction of a dopaminergic frontotemporal-subcortical circuit and has never been investigated as a possible affective complication of Parkinson's disease (PD). The aim of this study was to formally assess prevalence and correlates of physical anhedonia in PD patients compared with normal controls. ⋯ Anhedonia levels were significantly higher in PD patients with respect to controls, although not extremely elevated; prevalence rate was 40% for parkinsonians, while no anhedonics were found among controls. Clinical, neuropsychological, and quantitative neuroradiological features did not show any significant correlation with physical anhedonia. Physical anhedonia appears to be a relatively frequent, although mild, affective disturbance of PD, independent from neurological, frontal, and depressive aspects.