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Background: Patients suffering from several neurologic disorders may bear the "stigma" of their disease, being disqualified from full social acceptance. Although stigma is considered to be present in Multiple Sclerosis (MS), the factors that influence its levels are ambiguous. Aim of our study was to examine, for the first time in the literature, the basic determinants of stigma in a Hellenic MS-patients cohort, as well as how stigma affects their Quality-of-Life (QoL) profiles.Methods: Three hundred forty two patients were recruited in this study. Data collected concerned sociodemographic and disease-related variables, mental illness assessment, Multiple-Sclerosis-QoL-54 (MSQoL-54) and Stigma-Scale-for-Chronic-Illness-24 (SSCI-24) questionnaires. Potential determinants were evaluated with univariate statistical analyses for their contribution to total, internalized (inner-self derived) and externalized (society derived) stigma. Important findings were further evaluated on hierarchical regression models.Results: Disability levels were found to be the most powerful predictor in all stigma categories, followed by the presence of mental illness. Working and caregiving status were also ascertained as determinants of internalized stigma. Stigma levels displayed strong negative correlation with all composites of MSQoL-54.Conclusions: Stigma is present in the social environment of MS patients and was confirmed as a barrier (according to the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health), with detrimental effects on their QoL levels and functioning performances. Disability and mental illness were shown as the principal determinants of stigma, while financial characteristics were not as equally involved. Further validation of these results in other MS populations may provide safer conclusions, towards more efficacious patient-centered care outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An abstract of the article "Cognitive dysfunction in non-demented patients with Parkinson's disease," by Ioannis Zalonis is presented.

Background The state between normal cognition and dementia is known as mild cognitive impairment (MCI) [1]. While cognitive impairment that does not meet the clinical criteria for dementia is common, it is known that MCI, is associated with an increased risk of developing dementia [2,3]. Worse performance on neuropsychological tests (>1 SD from the mean performance) is a significant marker of cognitive impairment [4]. The purpose of the present study is to assess neuropsychological functions in clinically diagnosed MCI subjects and to determine evidence of preclinical dementia. Materials and methods One hundred and three (N = 103) patients who met the clinical criteria for MCI were assessed and after 12 months, thirty five patients of them (N = 35) were reassessed, since during the first examination, their performance on memory tests and other cognitive tests deviated significantly from performance of healthy controls (N = 121). All patients underwent an extensive series of neuropsychological tests, covered many cognitive domains [4]. Results MCI subjects showed poorer performance compared to controls, especially on tests of verbal and visual memory (p.000). However, they constituted a heterogeneous group, since re-examination revealed subgroups a) with improved performance and/or no more decline because of reversible reasons, b) with stable performance without further decline and c) with progressive decrease of performance and decline in many cognitive domains. Subjects with decline in multiple cognitive domains, apart from memory, constituted a homogeneous group with distinctive neuropsychological characteristics. Between test re-test, the range of scores on neuropsychological tests was found to increase. Moreover, this group performed significantly worse (p.000) on tests that assess speed of information processing, recall of meaningful new semantic and visual material, amount and rate of verbal learning, abstract reasoning and executive functions. The above-mentioned dysfunctions progressively resulted in decline of intelligence (verbal cognitive functions and visuomotor dexterities). Conclusions Given their performance on an extensive neuropsychological battery, subjects with clinical MCI show a characteristic profile of dysfunctions with decline in multiple cognitive domains. Test re-test assessments provide increased evidence that these multiple cognitive impaired subjects constitute a homogeneous group with high risk of conversion to dementia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An abstract of the article "Reference data for derived Trail Making Test scores in Greek healthy population," by Ioannis Zalonis is presented.