Arch Neurol Chicago
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Tourette syndrome (TS) is recognized as one of the most common childhood movement disorders, characterized by motor and phonic tics often associated with neurobehavioral comorbidities, such as obsessive-compulsive disorder. Neurotransmitter dysregulation, particularly involving the serotonin system, has been implicated in the pathogenesis of TS, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and migraine headache. ⋯ The frequency of migraine headache in a clinic sample of TS subjects was nearly 4-fold more than the frequency of migraines reported in the general population. Contrary to previous reports, the co-occurrence of migraines and TS in our sample group may possibly be attributed to another TS comorbidity, other than obsessive-compulsive traits.
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Arch Neurol Chicago · Oct 2003
Chronic cognitive impairment following laterothalamic infarcts: a study of 9 cases.
The occlusion of the lateral thalamic arteries leads to infarcts of ventrolateral thalamic nuclei, the ventroposterior nucleus, and the rostrolateral part of pulvinar, and produces hemisensory loss with or without hemiataxia. Cognitive impairment after such strokes has not been systematically studied. ⋯ Our observations show that while learning, naming, and gnosic difficulties fit with the classical verbal/nonverbal dichotomy (left and right hemisphere, respectively), executive dysfunctions, including verbal fluency tasks, were more dominant after right thalamic infarcts. Although the observed deficits appeared to be less severe than those generally found with dorsomedial and polar thalamic strokes, the dominance of executive dysfunction suggests that ventrolateral thalamic lesions may disrupt frontothalamic subcortical loops.
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Pain is an important symptom in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). The estimated pain prevalence varies between 30% and 90%. To our knowledge, previous studies do not include a whole population sample of patients with MS. ⋯ The frequency of reported pain in MS patients was not higher than in the background population. However, pain intensity, the need for analgesic treatment, and the impact of pain on daily life were higher in MS patients.
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Arch Neurol Chicago · Jul 2003
Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical TrialA randomized trial of amantadine in Huntington disease.
Huntington chorea, like levodopa-induced dyskinesias, may be responsive to amantadine hydrochloride treatment. ⋯ Elbow proprioception was not shown to be related to Huntington chorea. Amantadine hydrochloride treatment at doses of 300 mg/d had no effect, on average, for Huntington chorea, although most patients felt subjectively better during the short course of amantadine treatment.