Vitamin d status and cardiometabolic risk factors in long-term psychiatric inpatients.

Objective: Low vitamin D levels are common in psychiatric patients, but a need for vitamin D supplementation in these individuals remains controversial. Low vitamin D levels are reportedly associated with high prevalence of cardiometabolic risk factors, and both are common in psychiatric patients, but the relationship between diagnosis and severity of illness and cardiometabolic risk status and the effect of vitamin D treatment on them is not known. We studied these relationships and effect of vitamin D(3) treatment on them in 290 long-term psychiatric inpatients.

A comparison of computerized dynamic posturography therapy to standard balance physical therapy in individuals with Parkinson's disease: a pilot study.

Postural instability is a common impairment in idiopathic Parkinson's disease (PD). People with PD are prone to balance and walking difficulties. This study analyzed the feasibility of a prospective investigation of Computerized Dynamic Posturography (CDP) and standard Physical Therapy (PT) treatments in individuals with mild-moderate PD.

Validating the Berg Balance Scale for patients with Parkinson's disease: a key to rehabilitation evaluation.

Objective: To assess the criterion-related validity of the Berg Balance Scale (BBS) in subjects with Parkinson's disease (PD).

Design: Prospective, correlational analysis between the BBS and accepted measures of PD motor and functional impairment.

Setting: The federally funded PD research center, an interdisciplinary center of excellence for people with PD within a Veterans Affairs medical center.