The International journal of neuroscience
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Sleep disturbances are common in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). These disturbances can primarily affect the patient's quality of life and may worsen the symptoms of PD. Among the multiple sleep disturbances in PD patients, there has been a marked growing interest in rapid eye movement (REM) sleep behavior disorder (RBD). ⋯ RBD has been described as a premotor symptom of PD in several prospective, retrospective, and cross-sectional studies. Sleep disturbances in PD can result secondarily to natural disease progression, as a side effect of the medications used in PD, or in result of pre-clinical pathology. Treatment of sleep disturbances in PD patients is crucial, as what is termed as, "sleep benefit effect" has been shown to improve the symptoms of PD.
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Glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) is a specific astrocytic marker in the central nervous system. Few studies on the effects of glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) intrathecal injection on GFAP expression exist in the literature. The present study determined GFAP expression in rat spinal dorsal horn following a spinal nerve ligation (SNL). ⋯ Compared with the normal control and the sham-operated groups, GFAP expression in the SNL group increased at day 3 after surgery and lasted until 14 days after. GFAP expression was significantly less in the GDNF group compared with the SNL group which lasted until 14 days after surgery, suggesting that rat spinal dorsal horn GFAP expression contributes to SNL-induced neuropathic pain. The mechanisms underlying GDNF alleviation of neuropathic pain were shown to be related to the GDNF inhibition of GFAP expression in the spinal dorsal horn.
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Comparative Study
Comparison of trigeminal and spinal modulation of pain and nociception.
Modulation of pain and nociception by noxious counterstimulation, also called "diffuse noxious inhibitory controls" or DNIC-like effect, is often used in studies of pain disorders. It can be elicited in the trigeminal and spinal innervation areas, but no study has previously compared effects in both innervation areas. Therefore, we performed a study comparing DNIC-like effects on the nociceptive flexion reflex (NFR) and the nociceptive blink reflex as well as the respective pain sensations. ⋯ The cold water immersion of the contralateral hand elicited a reduction of both subjective pain sensation and reflex amplitude following the stimulation of both reflexes. However, there were no strong correlations between the individual reductions of both subjective pain sensation and reflex amplitude for both reflexes, and neither when results of the two reflexes were compared with each other. The dissociation between DNIC-like effects on pain and on nociception, which had been found previously already for the NFR, implies that both effects need to be studied separately.
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Review Meta Analysis
A systematic review of randomized controlled trials on the theraputic effect of intravenous sodium valproate in status epilepticus.
We performed this systematic review to determine whether intravenous sodium valproate was more effective or safer than other drugs in patients with status epilepticus (SE). A literature search was performed using Medline, Embase, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL). From 544 articles screened, 5 were identified as randomized controlled trials and were included for data extraction. ⋯ Compared with diazepam, sodium valproate had a statistically significant lower risk of time interval for control of refractory SE (RSE) after having drugs; however, there was no statistically significant difference in SE controlled within 30 min between the two groups. There was no statistically significant difference in cessation from status between intravenous sodium valproate and levetiracetam. Intravenous sodium valprate was as effective as intravenous phenytoin for SE controlled and risk of seizure continuation.
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Multicenter Study
Addiction-like manifestations and Parkinson's disease: a large single center 9-year experience.
Characterize potential risk factors and the relationship of dopamine agonist (DA) withdrawal syndrome (DAWS), dopamine dysregulation syndrome (DDS), and impulse control disorders (ICDs) in Parkinson's disease (PD). ⋯ There was a strong relationship between DAWS, DDS, and ICD in this large PD cohort. Dopaminergic therapy in a subset of PD patients was strongly associated with addiction-like behavioral issues.