Brain Evaluation

Elderly Patients Diagnosed with Depression and Bipolar Disorder have Cognitive Deficits

Using measures of executive functioning, processing speed, verbal fluency and verbal memory individuals diagnosed with Depression or Bipolar disorder were found to perform worse than control subjects (Neurology Reviews, April 2010).   

Mediterranean Diet and Physical Activity Associated with Reduced Risk for Alzheimer Disease

Those who were physically active and used the Mediterranean diet showed a sixty percent lower risk for Alzheimer’s dementia during a five year period.  Consuming a diet high in fruits, vegetables, legumes, cereal and fish was found to have a positive impact on a study of 1,880 elderly people living in Northern Manhattan, New York.  The independent benefits of diet and remaining physically active were still present after adjustments for age, gender, ethnicity, genetic risk factors, caloric intake, body mass index, other diseases, smoking, depression, cognitive and social activities.  The diet pattern while not fully explaining the better health of individuals who adhere to it, likely has some type of positive impact in combination with other favorable factors, (Neurology Today, September 17, 2009).

Percentage of Stroke Patients Under Age 45 is Increasing

Proportion of young stroke patients those younger than 45 years is going up significantly according to a population study based upon more than one million people over a 12 year period.  The average age of the time of stroke dropped from 71.3 years in 1993 to 1994 to 70.9 years in 1999 to 68.4 in 2005.  Over the same time period, the percentage of stroke patients younger than 45 years rose from 4.5 percent in 1993/1994 to 5.5 percent in 1999 and 7.3 percent in 2005.  Risk factors were identified.  Among those age 20 to 44 years, diabetes and coronary heart disease significantly increased between 1995 and 2005.  There were similar although not significant increases in hypertension and high cholesterol (Cerebrovascular & Critical Care, March 2010). 

The Use of Progesterone for TBI

In the US, 1.5 to 2.0 million civilians sustained a traumatic brain injury each year.  The use of progesterone demonstrated a fifty percent reduction in mortality in patients treated compared to placebo.  Functional outcomes were improved and reduced disability seen in patients suffering from moderate traumatic brain injury.  The earlier patients received the drug the better the outcome as a means to try to prevent the brain from swelling immediately after the injury and the cascade of injury that occurs after that time.  Neurosurgery and Trauma, March 2010).

Suicidal Acts Found to be More Common with Certain Anticonvulsants

AED or anticonvulsant drugs used to treat seizures, bipolar disorder, mania, neuralgia; migraine and neuropathic pain, often used off label have the increased risk of suicidal ideation and behaviors.  Risk was higher for younger and older individuals (Neurology Today, June 3, 2010).

Exposure to Dry Cleaning Solvents Linked to Increased Risk for Parkinson Disease

Exposure to the decreasing solvent TCE (Trichloroethylene) has been significantly associated with an increased risk of PD.  Men exposed to this substance had more than six times the rate of PD than their twins who did not have this exposure.  (Neurology Today, June 5 2010).

Smoking Linked to TIA at Younger Ages

There is a potential role for smoking as an inducing factor in thrombus formation.  The median age for stroke presentation for the smoking population was 65.5 and increased to 68 years for ex-smokers and 67.6 for non-smokers.  The median age for TIA presentation was 56.7 for smokers, 72.2 for ex-smokers and 69.1 for non-smokers.   Ex-smokers had higher rates of hypertension and dyslipidemia than current or non-smokers.  (Neurology Review, April 2010).

Short sleep Duration associated with Poor Performance on IQ Measures

Longer sleep duration when completed on a habitual basis was associated with better performance on intellectual measures of perceptual reasoning and overall IQ.   There were no significant associations found for working memory or processing speed IQ factors (Gruber et. al., 2010, Sleep Medicine,11).

Cognitive Behavior Therapy for Insomnia was Successful in Patients Suffering from Chronic Pain

As a result of CBT patients exhibited significant decreases in the time it took to fall asleep, decreased wake periods after being asleep, decreased number of awakenings and increased sleep efficiency or the amount of time spent sleeping after initial sleep onset.  Significant improvements were seen using behavioral treatment for insomnia in a pain population resulting in improvement in pain or lessened pain interfering with daily functioning (Jungquist, et al., 2010, Sleep Medicine, 11). 

Sleep Patterns and Daytime Functioning in Children with Insomnia

Sleep problems were assessed of children between the ages of five to ten years by their parents.  Reduced sleep as reported by the parents was found to be predictive of more delinquent behavior and concentration problems in their children.  When parents reported that children were awake after initially falling asleep, this was also predictive of more pronounced daytime sleepiness.  Greater daytime sleepiness was seen as related to the presence of social problems in the children.  Consequently two factors were seen as affecting the daytime behavior of children, the total sleep time as well as the amount of time spent awake after initially falling asleep (Velten-Schurian et.al., 2010, Sleep Medicine, 11).