BrainBlog

Palmer BW, Dawes SE, & Heaton RK. (2009). What Do We Know About Neuropsychological Aspects Of Schizophrenia? Neuropsychology Review . Jul 30 [e-pub ahead of print]. Application of a neuropsychological perspective to the study of schizophrenia has established a number of important facts about this disorder. Some of the key findings from the existing literature are that, while neurocognitive impairment is present in most, if not all, persons with schizophrenia, there is both substantial interpatient heterogeneity and remarkable within-patient stability of cognitive function over the long-term course of the illness. Such findings have contributed to the firm establishment of neurobiologic models of schizophrenia, and thereby help to reduce the social stigma that was sometimes associated with purely psychogenic models popular during parts of the 20th century. Neuropsychological studies in recent decades have established the primacy of cognitive functions over psychopathologic symptom...

Benzion Beilin; Dan Hoofien; Ravit Poran; Inbal Gral; Galina Grinevich; Berta Butin; Eduard Mayburd; & Yehuda Shavit. Comparison of two patient-controlled analgesia techniques on neuropsychological functioning in the immediate postoperative period. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, Volume 30, Issue 6, August 2008, 674-682. Pain may contribute to cognitive decline, which is a common complication in the early postoperative period. We compared the effects of two common pain management techniques, intravenous patient-controlled analgesia (PCA-IV) and patient-controlled epidural analgesia (PCEA), on cognitive functioning in the immediate postoperative period. Patients hospitalized for elective surgery were randomly assigned to one of the treatment groups (30 patients per group). A battery of objective, standardized neuropsychological tests was administered preoperatively and 24 hours after surgery. Pain intensity was also evaluated. Nonoperated volunteers se...

The annual meeting of the APS takes place next week in Florida. Visit the conference homepage for details: Link . From the conference homepage: Conference Purpose and Objectives "The 27th Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Pain Society will offer current information about the diagnosis, treatment, and management of acute pain, chronic cancer and noncancer pain, and recurrent pain. In-depth workshops are planned and are designed to enhance research or clinical skills pertinent to the management of pain; they will feature content appropriate for professionals at several experience levels. "Each year the APS Scientific Program Committee carefully reviews attendees’ evaluations in order to organize a scientific program which addresses a broad range of topics related to pain research and treatment. "Designed for a diverse group of scientists, pain clinicians, and other professionals, the 27th Annual Scientific Meeting features a prominent faculty presenting basic, tran...

Chaudhuri KR, Martinez-Martin P, Brown RG, Sethi K, Stocchi F, Odin P, Ondo W, Abe K, Macphee G, Macmahon D, Barone P, Rabey M, Forbes A, Breen K, Tluk S, Naidu Y, Olanow W, Williams AJ, Thomas S, Rye D, Tsuboi Y, Hand A, & Schapira AH. The metric properties of a novel non-motor symptoms scale for Parkinson's disease: Results from an international pilot study. Movement Disorders. 2007 Aug 2; [Epub ahead of print]. National Parkinson Foundation Centre of Excellence, Kings College Hospital, London, United Kingdom. Non-motor symptoms (NMS) in Parkinson's disease (PD) are common, significantly reduce quality of life and at present there is no validated clinical tool to assess the progress or potential response to treatment of NMS. A new 30-item scale for the assessment of NMS in PD (NMSS) was developed. NMSS contains nine dimensions: cardiovascular, sleep/fatigue, mood/cognition, perceptual problems, attention/memory, gastrointestinal, urinary, sexual function, and miscellany...