Neurology
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Historical Article
The "torpillage" neurologists of World War I: electric therapy to send hysterics back to the front.
The French neurologists and psychiatrists who were mobilized during the Great War were confronted with numerous soldiers with war neuroses, often with novel clinical manifestations such as camptocormia. They addressed hysteria and pithiatism according to concepts that had been formed before the war, and many doctors considered these soldiers to be malingerers. As a result, the use of aggressive therapies to enable their prompt return to the battlefront was advocated. ⋯ In January 1918, he too came up against soldiers refusing electric treatment. Following a new trial and an unfavorable press campaign, the psycho-faradic method gradually died out. These extreme medical practices developed to treat psychological trauma during the First World War subsequently led to the delineation of posttraumatic stress disorder in more recent wars.
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We aimed to study if age-related white matter changes (WMC) and vascular risk factors were predictors of cognitive decline in elderly subjects with WMC living independently. ⋯ WMC severity and diabetes are independent predictors of cognitive decline in an initially nondisabled elderly population. Vascular dementia is predicted by previous stroke and WMC, while AD is predicted only by MTA.
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Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) is a chronic pain condition characterized by sensory, motor, and autonomic symptoms. It develops after limb trauma and may be associated with relevant psychiatric comorbidity. As there is evidence for central pathophysiology which might be related to an altered opioidergic neurotransmission, we investigated the cerebral opioid receptor status under resting conditions in this patient population. ⋯ These results demonstrate altered central opioidergic neurotransmission in CRPS. The correlation of regional opioid receptor availability to measures of pain, anxiety, and depression underlines the clinical importance of these findings.