Neuropsychiatic

Tourette syndrome (TS) and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) are two neuropsychiatric disorders that frequently co-occur. Previous evidence suggests a shared genetic diathesis underlying the comorbidity of TS and OCD. This review aims to comprehensively summarize the current literature on the genetic factors linked with TS and its comorbidities, with a focus on OCD. Family studies, linkage analysis, cytogenetic studies, and genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have played a pivotal role in identifying common and rare genetic variants connected with TS and OCD...

Essential tremor (ET) is the most common movement disorder which has both motor and non-motor findings such as neuropsychiatic symptoms. Alexithymia is defined as inability to identify and describe emotions experienced by one's self or others. In our study, we aimed to evaluate the neurocognitive and brain micro-structural correlates of alexithymia in ET. 40 ET patients (mean age = 53.05 ± 19.74 years), were included. Fahn-Tolosa-Marin Tremor Rating Scale, Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS), Beck Depression Inventory, Beck Anxiety Inventory and detailed neurocognitive evaluation were applied to all patients...

Neuropsychiatic systematic lupus erythematosus (NPSLE) is a form of SLE involves the inflammation and/or thrombotic event in the nervous system. Patients with NPSLE are likely to have a positive antiphospholipid antibody (aPL), therefore are at higher risk of recurrent ischemic stroke. The management of NPSLE with aPLrelated stroke is rather different from the traditional ischemic stroke. One must treat it with anticoagulation and immunosuppressive therapy. The present case is a 47-yearold Taiwanese female with NPSLE and positive aPL, presented with a recurrent MCA ischemic stroke...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Huntington disease (HD) is an au-tosomal dominant hereditary neurodegenerative disease with multiplication of CAG triplet in the short arm of chromoso-me 4, manifested by motor symptoms, cognitive dysfunction progressing to dementia, and various types of neuropsychiat-ric disorders. The diagnosis of HD is confirmed by a gene-tic test, which may also be carried out presymptomatically. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We studied differences in psychiatric examination and psychometric measures among the 52 people at risk of HD, who were recommended to postpone or to continue in the predictive protocol...

A 87-year old man was admitted to our hospital with decline in cognition and mobility and visual hallucinations. CT scanning revealed a bilateral chronic subdural hematoma. The hematoma was probably caused by a recent fall, while the patient was using acenocoumarol. Chronic subdural hematoma (CSDH) is a frequently occurring intracranial bleeding in the elderly. It usually occurs after a minor trauma and may present with a variety of symptoms. The differentiation between CSDH and other disorders like dementia can be difficult when the hematoma presents with cognitive decline and neuropsychiatic symptoms, such as hallucinations...

Novel molecular genetic approaches, at genome-scale in different species allowed characterizing genes that have undergone recent selection. The interest in this research field is not limited to the natural curiosity about our evolutionary past, but it is also to identify novel susceptibility genes for neuropsychiatic disorders by pointing specific human traits, such as behavioral and cognitive abilities. Hypotheses have been proposed to relate specific psychiatric disorders to the origin of modern humans, as evidenced by the theory of Crow about schizophrenia...

Consciousness is an essential property of human cognition. According to the "Global neuronal workspace" hypothesis designed by Dehaene et al., consciousness results from amplification and synchronisation of distant processors. Frontoparietal loops play a crucial role in this large scale synchronisation. At any given time, many modular cerebral networks are active in parallel and process information unconsciously. An information becomes conscious, however, if the neural population that represents it is mobilized by top-down attentional amplification into a brain-scale state of coherent activity...

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate diagnostic properties of the Frontal Behavioural Inventory (FBI) in patients suffering from different forms of dementia. METHODS: The FBI was administered with other psychometric tests investigating cognitive performances and behavioral scales to the caregivers of 35 patients with the frontal variant of frontotemporal dementia (fv-FTD), 22 patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and 15 with vascular dementia (VaD). All patients were comparable for degree of dementia severity and level of executive impairment...

Antipsychotic drugs are widely used in people with dementia to treat neuropsychiatic symptoms such as aggression, agitation and psychosis. Using antipsychotic agents in older patients is difficult, because it depends on co-morbid conditions, side effects, dosing strategies, duration of treatments and combinations of various medications. This paper discusses the use of atypical antipsychotics in a 1-year-observation on a group of patients followed by an expert dementia center.

Vagal nerve stimulation is an important adjunctive therapy for medically refractory epilepsy and major depression. Additionally, it may prove effective in treating obesity, Alzheimer's disease, and some neuropsychiatic disorders. As the number of approved indications increases, more patients are becoming eligible for surgical placement of a commercial vagal nerve stimulator (VNS). Initial VNS placement typically requires general anesthesia, and patients with previously implanted devices may present for other surgical procedures requiring anesthetic management...

Individuals who use cocaine report a variety of neuropsychiatric symptoms that are yet to be adequately targeted with treatment modalities. To address this problem requires an understanding of these symptoms and their neurobiological origins. Our paper reviewed the existing data on the neuropsychiatic implications of cocaine. We conducted a Medline search from 1984-2004 using terms, such as "cocaine", "cocaine addiction", "cocaine abuse", "cocaine neuropsychiatry" and "dual diagnosis". The search produced additional reference materials that were used in this review, although we focused on data that have likely clinical implications...

Mesocortical [corrected] dopamine (DA) inputs to the prefrontal cortex (PFC) play a critical role in normal cognitive process and neuropsychiatic pathologies. This DA input regulates aspects of working memory function, planning and attention, and its dysfunctions may underlie positive and negative symptoms and cognitive deficits associated with schizophrenia. Despite intense research, there is still a lack of clear understanding of the basic principles of actions of DA in the PFC. In recent years, there has been considerable efforts by many groups to understand the cellular mechanisms of DA modulation of PFC neurons...

As studies concerning the innocuousness of neuropsychiatic drugs during pregnancy are sometimes contradictory and difficult to interpret, the guiding line to follow is that the risk incurred by the foetus must be inferior to that of an untreated maternal pathology. Categories such as "anticonvulsivants", benzodiazepins or lithium may increase, particularly during the first term, the risk of some malformations. IMAOs and psychostimulants are to be avoided. As for antidepressants, some SSRIs such as fluotexin or citalopram will be preferred as far as possible...

BACKGROUND: Late life onset schizophrenia (sometimes termed "late paraphrenia") has been theorized to be due to neuro-degenerative processes affecting individuals with latent vulnerability to schizophrenia. However, neuro-imaging studies using computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) investigating possible degenerative anatomic correlates (atrophy, white matter disease, and strokes) to late onset psychoses have yielded conflicting findings. The variation in these findings may be due to differences in study design, case ascertainment, and measurement methods...