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Psychological changes induced in normal volunteers by inhalations of nitrous oxide are described. Some of these changes resembled psychiatric symptoms, for example illusions and hallucinations, perseverations, and ‘dissociated’ states. There was no relation between individual differences in number of changes reported, ratings for emotional stability, and cognitive impairment attributable to drug. Possible relations between normal, drug-induced, and other forms of abnormal behaviour are discussed.

Background: Sleep apnea syndrome is a common disorder which is estimated to affect about 1~4% of adult male population. And if untreated, sleep apnea can cause significant sequelae, such as hypertension, nocturnal cardiac arrhythmia, daytime hypersomnolence, and cognitive impairment. Various kinds of treatment for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) have been developed. Among them nasal CPAP, first introduced by Sullivan et al in 1981, has received widespread interest and acclaim as a treatment of OSA, and is currently recommended as first-line treatment for OSA. We evaluated the effect of nasal CPAP in OSA and the side effects of nasal CPAP hindering patients from using nasal CPAP. Methods: We performed sleep studies in 20 OSA patients at 2 consecutive nights; baseline night at first day and CPAP night at second day. We compared apnea index, lowest oxygen concentration during apnea, maximal apnea time, and total apnea duration per total sleep time before and after CPAP. We also evaluated the side effects of CPAP with inquiry to the patients. Results: 1) Apnea index was significantly decreased after CPAP in 17 out of 20 OSA patients (85%) and increased in 3 patients (15%). 2) Average apnea index was significantly decreased after CPAP (, p, p

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SYNOPSISSpecific cortical somatosensory evoked responses were recorded in nine patients suffering from senile dementia and eight elderly depressed patients. The results were as follows. (1) The latencies of each peak were longer in the demented than in the depressed group but this difference was significant only for peak 3 (the second negative deviation). (2) The late negative deviation (peak 5) was either absent or very flat in demented patients. The ratio of the amplitude of this late wave to that of the first peak discriminated between demented and non-demented patients at the 0·5% level. (3) The value of this ratio combined with that of the latency of peak 3 could be used to classify all but one patient into the correct diagnostic group. The results are discussed in the light of the relevant literature. It is suggested that slowing of conduction in the nervous system may be a very basic disturbance associated with cognitive impairment in old age and that measurements of this kind may come to assist in the diagnosis of dementia.

Tests of vocabulary and abstraction administered to groups of schizophrenic and non-schizophrenic patients at time of hospital admission and at time of clinical remission and discharge home revealed some evidence of general cognitive impairment in both groups, with significant improvement by time of discharge, as well as evidence of continuing specific conceptual impairment among schizophrenics.

WISC Verbal-Performance discrepancy, Vocabulary-Block Design discrepancy, and Similarities-Object Assembly discrepancy were investigated in matched samples of 25 normal, suspected neurological dysfunction, and documented neurological dysfunction children. The results suggest a continuum of deficit in these samples ranging from normal performance by normal controls to moderate impairment in Ss with documented neurological dysfunction. The suspected neurological dysfunction sample occupied a median position in the continuum as predicted. An analysis of WISC IQ and subtest scores in the three samples also supported the predicted continuum of deficit. Specific WISC subtest comparisons may be of some research and clinical utility in the prediction of neurological dysfunction in pediatric patients.

Chronic alcoholics were administered the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test. It was found that those subjects who admitted to an alcoholism history of greater than 10 years were impaired at set persistence, set shifting, and error utilization relative to normal controls, while those subjects who described

SUMMARY Seventeen patients who had received an anterior temporal lobectomy for intractable temporal lobe epilepsy were studied after an interval of from one to seven years since the time of operation. The evaluation focused on psychologic, psychopathologic, and psychosocial factors in addition to seizure relief and enduring surgical side effects. In terms of seizure relief, 14 patients had an excellent result. In terms of global improvement, considering all factors known, 9 to 10 of the patients were judged to have an overall worthwile result. About one-third of the patients had a good surgical result in terms of seizure relief but were not viewed as satisfactorily improved from a global point of view. This non-improvement in general functioning, in spite of seizure relief, was traced to three factors: cognitive impairment, pathologic psychologic responses to cognitive impairments, and emotional-characterologic factors chiefly characterized by defective personality development, depression, and/or paranoia. RESUME Dix sept malades, presentant une epilepsie temporale rebelle aux traitements, ont subi une lobectomie du lobe temporal anterieur. Ces malades ont eteetudies apres un intervalle de un a sept ans apres l'operation. L'etude a porte sur les facteurs psychologiques, psychopathologiques et psycho-sociaux, associes a la suppression des crises et aux effets durables secondaires a l'operation. En ce qui concerne la suppression des crises, quatorze malades eurent un excellent resultat. En terme d'amelioration globale, considerant tous les facteurs connus, on a estime que 9 a 10 des malades ont eu de tres valables resultats. Environ un tiers des malades ont eu leurs crises supprimees mais n'ont pas ete considered comme etant ameliores d'un point de vue global. Le fait qu'ils n'aient pas ete ameliores globalement, malgre la suppression des crises, etait dua trois sortes de facteurs: baisse de leurs facultes cognitives, reponses psychopathologiques a cette baisse de leurs facultes cognitives, et des facteurs emotivo-caractearologiques definis principalement par le developpement d'une personnalite anormale, depression et/ou paranoia.

The authors describe characteristics of postoperative delirium observed in 60 patients. The typical delirious patient was over 60, had undergone cardiac or orthopedic surgery, became delirious on the third postoperative day and recovered by the seventh, was as likely to be retarded and apathetic as restless and fearful, and had a 50 percent chance of minor cognitive impairment or dismissal. The patient's age and length of illness affected his prognosis; type of treatment did not.

SUMMARY Comparisons on an extensive battery of neuropsychological tests including the WAIS and Halstead's measures were made in the following four groups: (N = 51 in each group): 1, controls; 2, patients with verified brain damage but without epilepsy; 3, brain-damaged patients with epilepsy matched for type of brain damage with the patients in Group 2; 4, patients with epilepsy of unknown etiology matched with the patients in Group 3 for type of seizures. Age and education matches were achieved across the four groups. The results of the study indicated that the presence of epileptic seizures was associated with significantly lower psychometric and adaptive ability levels than those found in normal control subjects. These test score differences occurred both in epileptic patients whose epilepsy was of unknown etiology and in epileptic patients with verified cerebral pathology. However, comparisons of two groups matched for type of pathology, but with and without seizures, did not result in additional significant impairment in the seizure group. These results suggested that epileptic manifestations, regardless of etiology, resulted in significant impairment of adaptive and psychometric abilities, but that in those epileptic patients in whom verified lesions could be established, the ictal episodes per se did not result in significant additional cognitive impairment when compared to non-epileptic patients matched for type of pathology. REASUMEA On a compareA les reAsultats d'une batterie de tests incluant le WAIS et le Halstead appliqueAe aG 4 groupes (N = 51 dans chaque groupe): 1, Groupe controCle; 2, malades organiques dont les leAsions du cerveau sont objectiveAes, ne preAsentant pas d'eApilepsie; 3, malades organiques avec eApilepsie, apparieAs en ce qui concerne le type de leAsions ceAreAbrales avec les malades du Groupe 2; 4, malades avec eApilepsie d'eAtiologie inconnue, apparieAs avec les malades du Groupe 3 en ce qui concerne le type de crises. Les 4 groupes ont eAteA apparieAs en ce qui concerne l'aCge et le niveau culturel. Les reAsultats de cette eAtude ont montreA que les groupes qui preAsentaient des crises eApileptiques avaient des reAsultats significativement plus bas et des capaciteAs d'adaptation moindres que le groupe controCle de normaux. Ceci se retrouve aG la fois dans le groupe qui preAsente une eApilepsie d'eAtiologie inconnue et dans celui dont l'atteinte ceAreAbrale est suCre. Cependant, si on compare les deux groupes organiques apparieAs par le type de pathologie, l'un preAsentant des crises, l'autre non, on ne constate pas de diffeArence entre ces deux groupes. Nous pouvons dire que les manifestations eApileptiques d'eAtiologie quelconque entrainent un affaiblissement significatif des possibiliteAs d'adaptation et de l'efficience aux tests psychomeAtriques. Mais, si on compare les eApileptiques qui ont des leAsions ceAreAbrales connues et les malades organiques non eApileptiques, ces deux groupes eAtant apparieAs en ce qui concerne le type de pathologie, on ne constate pas de diffeArence significative aux tests entre ces deux groupes. Donc l'eApisode eApileptique en soi pour les malades organiques n'est pas responsable de l'affaiblissement speAcifique des fonctions cognitives.

A continuum of reproductive causality is postulated, extending from fetal deaths - abortion, stillbirth, and neonatal - through a descending gradient of brain damage manifested in neuropsychiatric disorders. The research and administrative public health implications of these findings and the concept of the continuum are briefly but provocatively discussed.

Renata Gliwa, Verbal fluency in categories of common and proper names in the phase of mild cognitive impairment in the course of Parkinson’s disease. Interdisciplinary Contexts of Special Pedagogy, no. 27, Poznań 2019. Pp. 249–272. Adam Mickiewicz University Press. ISSN 2300-391X. e-ISSN 2658-283X. DOI: https://doi.org/10.14746/ikps.2019.27.12 The article is devoted to consideration of verbal fluency in MCI-PD. The VF test allows for the detection of dysfunctions within linguistic processes, semantic memory and dysfunctions of executive functions already in the early stages of Parkinson’sdisease. The article compares the results of verbal fluency tests in selected categories of proper names and common names, and assesses the effect of the MCIPD stage on the test result. The comparison of the test group results with various degrees of MCI indicates a progressive decrease in verbal fluency. The experiment showed different profiles of the verbal task in terms of common and proper names.

Recent investigations have suggested that cerebral hypoxia due to cardiac insufficiency may produce cognitive impairment. Experimental evidence confirming cognitive dysfunction in persons having cardiovascular disease has, however, not been thoroughly developed. Cognitive and visual-motor impairment with cardiovascular disease in men has been confirmed in the present study; this is apparently related neither to aging nor to hypertension.

The elderly population is increasing around the world and in Brazil, with its population expansion there are an increase in life expectancy. Different types of diseases arise, being Alzheimer's Disease (AD) one of the most progressive and fatal neurodegenerative dementias. The initial symptom of the disease is characterized by progressive loss of recent memory. In the evolution of the same, other functions will also be identified with cognitive impairment, impaired ambulation, altered language until urinary and fecal incontinence. Objective: To discuss the impact of Alzheimer's disease (AD) on the family and / or caregiver. Method: This is a review of the Literature in which articles organized in databases such as Scielo, Lilacs, Periodicals, Theses, Geriatrics and Gerontology Treaties, Protocols and Guidelines of the Ministry of Health, virtual website of the Brazilian Association of Alzheimer's disease. The data were collected between the years of 2010 and 2017. Conclusion: The family caregiver and all the family members suffer many emotional and physical impacts with the coexistence with the bearer, however some support groups are available, to solve some doubts, questioning and knowledge deal with this carrier in the evolution of the disease.

Excerpt Rauwolfia serpentinain the form of crude pharmacologic preparations seems to have had an important place in the folk-lore medicine of India for many years as a reputed cure for "insanity" a...