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PD dementia undertreated

 

A U.S. study reports that Parkinson’s disease dementia often goes unrecognized in the nursing home setting (Hoegh et al. Am J Geriatr Psychiatry 2013; 2013;21:529-535).

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What is the minimum clinically important change in PANSS?

 

An analysis has been conducted to determine the minimum clinically important difference in the positive and negative syndrome scale (PANSS) during antipsychotic treatment based on data from the Clinical Antipsychotic Trials of Intervention Effectiveness (CATIE) study (Hermes et al. J Clin Psychiatry 2012;73:526-532). Data were available for 1,442 patients to link PANSS scores and clinician/patient ratings on the Clinical Global Impressions (CGI) scale.

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ENS Tuesday highlights – Parkinson’s disease, MS, epilepsy and RLS

 

Report from the European Neurological Society (ENS) annual meeting
Barcelona, Spain, June 8-11, 2013

Parkinson’s disease
CIS/Multiple sclerosis
Epilepsy
Restless legs syndrome
Comment by Dr. Daniel Selchen, Toronto, Canada

Parkinson’s disease: Subthalamic deep-brain stimulation (DBS) has been shown to be effective in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease and is associated with a low rate of short-term mortality. Surgical complications, such as hemorrhage, hardware-related adverse events and inability to complete the procedure, occur in about 5% of patients (Vergani et al. World Neurosurg 2010;73:338-344).

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Short-term complications may include intracranial hemorrhage, infection and pulmonary embolism (Voges et al. Mov Disord 2007;22:1486-1489). Cases series have reported all-cause mortality of 9-10% at 3-5 years post-surgery (Toft et al. Mov Disord 2011;26:1931-1934; Schupbach et al. Mov Disord 2007;22:257-261).

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ENS Monday highlights: MS, dementia, CNS infections and tremor

 

Report from the European Neurological Society (ENS) annual meeting
Barcelona, Spain, June 8-11, 2013

Multiple sclerosis
Dementia
CNS infection
Tremor
Comment by Dr. Daniel Selchen, Toronto, Canada

Multiple sclerosis: A University of British Columbia study is one of the first to report on birth outcomes in fathers with MS (Lu et al. ENS 2013). The retrospective study examined data from several provincial databases to compare babies born to men with and without MS. For the period 1996-2010, a total of 202 births to fathers with MS and 981 births to fathers without MS were identified. No significant differences were observed in gestation (39 weeks) or mean birth weight.

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