Neighborhood social participation, use of anxiolytic-hypnotic drugs, and women's propensity for disability pension: a multilevel analysis.

Aims: The increasing number of people on disability pension in Sweden is of concern for Swedish policy-makers, and there is a need for a better understanding of the mechanisms behind disability pension. We investigated (i) whether women living in the same neighborhood have a similar propensity for disability pension that relates to neighborhood social participation, and (ii) whether there is an association between anxiolytic-hypnotic drug (AHD) use and disability pension in women that is modified by the neighborhood context.

Methods: We used multilevel logistic regression with 12,156 women aged 45 to 64 (first level) residing in 95 neighborhoods (second level) in the city of Malmö (250,000 inhabitants), Sweden, who participated in the Malmö Diet and Cancer Study (1991-96).

Beneficial effects on sleep of vagus nerve stimulation in children with therapy resistant epilepsy.

The study purpose was to evaluate sleep structure following Vagus Nerve Stimulation (VNS) in 15 children with therapy resistant epilepsy and to correlate possible alterations with changes in epileptiform activity and clinical effects. Fifteen children were examined with ambulatory polysomnographic recordings initially, and after 3 and 9 months of VNS-treatment. Sleep parameters, all-night delta power activity and movement times (MTs), used to account for arousals were estimated.

Vagus nerve stimulation in 15 children with therapy resistant epilepsy; its impact on cognition, quality of life, behaviour and mood.

Purpose: Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) is a neurophysiologic treatment for patients with refractory epilepsy. There is growing evidence of additional quality of life (QOL) benefits of VNS. We report the effects of VNS on seizure frequency and severity and how these changes are related to cognitive abilities, QOL, behaviour and mood in 15 children with medically refractory and for surgery not eligible epilepsy.

Long term effects on epileptiform activity with vagus nerve stimulation in children.

Purpose: We report long-term effects of vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) on epileptiform activity in 15 children, and how these changes are related to activity stage and to clinical effects on seizure reduction, seizure severity (NHS3) and quality of life (QOL).

Methods: Initially, and after 3 and 9 months of VNS-treatment, 15 children were investigated with 24 h ambulatory EEG monitoring for spike detection. The number of interictal epileptiform discharges (IEDs) and the inter spike intervals (ISIs) were analysed during 2 h in the awake state, and 1h of rapid eye movement (REM)-, spindle- and delta-sleep, respectively.

SPECT findings in children with specific language impairment.

Findings from 99mTc-HMPAO SPECT measurements at rest in a group of 19 school-age children with specific language impairment (SLI) were compared to a group of 12 children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The regional cerebral blood flow (CBF) distributions were different in the two groups. Children with SLI showed significantly lower CBF values in the right parietal region and in the subcortical region compared to the ADHD group.

Neighbourhood social participation and women's use of anxiolytic-hypnotic drugs: a multilevel analysis.

Study Objectives: To identify and quantify a hypothesised collective effect of the neighbourhood on individual use of anxiolytic-hypnotic drugs (AHD). To analyse the general impact of neighbourhood social participation on use of AHD, adjusting for individual characteristics.

Design: Cross sectional analysis performed by multilevel logistic regression with women at the first level and neighbourhoods at the second level.

Mental correlates of neuromotoric deviation in 6-year-olds at heightened risk for schizophrenia.

The meaning and relevance of the increased rates of neuromotoric deviation (ND) observed in patients with schizophrenia and their biological relatives remain unclear. ND could represent free-floating, independent characteristics of individuals in these families vs. signs of an increased risk for current or future mental disorder.

Auditory event-related brain potentials in parents of children with specific language impairment.

Auditory event-related brain potentials evoked in response to tone stimuli and to speech stimuli were recorded in a group of parents of children with specific language-impairment and a group of parents of normally speaking children. The parents of the language-impaired children showed longer P3 latencies than the parental control group in the speech task requiring a phonological discrimination, but did not differ from the controls in the linguistically non-demanding tone discrimination task. The longer P3 latency was associated with a positive parental history of language delay.

Amplitude-integrated encephalography in pyridoxine-dependent seizures and pyridoxine-responsive seizures.

Unlabelled: Pyridoxine-dependent seizures are rare in newborn infants, although recent data suggest that the prevalence probably is underestimated. In all newborn infants with recurrent epileptic seizures the general recommendation is to administer pyridoxine and simultaneously record an electroencephalogram (EEG).

Conclusion: One infant with pyridoxine-responsive seizures and another with pyridoxine-dependent seizures had different electroclinical responses on amplitude-integrated EEG monitoring (aEEG) when pyridoxine was administered.

Auditory event-related brain potentials in children with specific language impairment.

Event-related brain potentials evoked by tone and speech stimuli were recorded in ten children with specific language impairment and a control group. The patient group showed prolonged P3 latencies in both tasks compared with the controls and smaller P3 amplitude in the speech task. There were no group differences concerning the N1-P2 components.

The N400 component in parents of children with specific language impairment.

Children with specific language impairment (SLI) often have a family history of language disorder. In this study, ERPs in response to a visual semantic priming task were recorded in parents of children with SLI. Despite equal performance, the ERPs displayed differences in language processing: larger N400 amplitudes indicated that the parents, especially the fathers, were less primed by the preceding context.

Mortality in elderly men with low psychosocial coping resources using anxiolytic-hypnotic drugs.

Objective: Insufficient coping with stress may lead to increased susceptibility for disease and death. Use of anxiolytic-hypnotic drugs has been suggested as a coping strategy, and some opinions have proposed their use as preventive medication. The aim of this study was to estimate if use of anxiolytic-hypnotic drugs counters the increased mortality observed in individuals lacking other coping strategies such as emotional support and social participation.

[Buprenorphine as a new alternative for detoxification of heroin addicts. It causes only mild withdrawal problems, abating quickly].

Buprenorphine might be an alternative drug to be used in opiate detoxification. Its main advantage is that it carries a low risk for respiratory depression, it gives less euphoria and limited withdrawal effects. In a pilot detoxification project ten heroin addicts were given buprenorphine; seven completed the course.

Antiepileptic drug-related cognitive complaints in seizure-free children with epilepsy before and after drug discontinuation.

The cognitive complaints reported by children and their parents, as subjectively associated with antiepileptic drug (AED) treatment, were evaluated in seizure-free children before and after drug discontinuation. The aim of the design was to isolate the cognitive side effects of AEDs from other factors, such as the effect of seizures. Our inventory explored the following areas: "alertness," "concentration," "activation/ tiredness," "memory," "drowsiness," "depression," "aggressiveness," and "hyperactivity," using a 5-point Likert scaling procedure.

Vagus nerve stimulation in 16 children with refractory epilepsy.

Purpose: Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) has been reported to produce >90% reduction in the number of seizures in children with intractable epilepsy. These encouraging results need confirmation.

Methods: Sixteen children, 10 boys and 6 girls aged 4-19 years, were treated with VNS (Cyberonics, Webster, TX, U.

Adrenoleukodystrophy--unusual CT and MR findings in two siblings. Case reports.

Purpose: To describe the unusual appearance of adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD) in MR imaging.

Material And Methods: An analysis was made of MR findings, histopathology and clinical course in the cases of two brothers with ALD.

Results: The older brother presented with frontal contrast-enhanced lesions, including a cyst.

[Differential diagnosis in epilepsy. Anamnesis is still the most important guide].

Epilepsy is defined by the WHO as "a chronic brain disorder of various aetiologies characterised by recurrent seizures due to excessive discharge of cerebral neurones." There are many other episodic conditions including systemic, neurological and psychiatric disorders, which may be confused with epileptic seizures but are not the result of epileptic neuronal discharge. The principal differential diagnoses in cases of episodic seizures in adults and children are outlined in this review, and the importance of adequate history taking is stressed.

Long-term melatonin treatment in blind children and young adults with circadian sleep-wake disturbances.

Oral melatonin therapy was used to treat-severe circadian sleep-wake disturbances in eight children and young adults in an open study. All patients were functionally blind, six of them because of defects in the anterior visual pathway. All were mentally retarded.

Fine mapping of the gene for carbohydrate-deficient glycoprotein syndrome, type I (CDG1): linkage disequilibrium and founder effect in Scandinavian families.

Carbohydrate-deficient glycoprotein syndrome type I (CDG I) is characterized clinically by severe nervous system involvement and biochemically by defects in the carbohydrate residues in a number of serum glycoproteins. The CDG1 gene was recently localized by us to a 13-cM interval in chromosome region 16p13. In this study 44 CDG I families from nine countries were analyzed with available markers in a region ranging from marker D16S495 to D16S497, and haplotype and linkage disequilibrium analyses were performed.

Disorders of the cerebral white matter in children. The spectrum of lesions.

The use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has resulted in the detection of an increasing number of children with an apparently leukodystrophic white matter. Laboratory tests and the clinical presentation, however, often do not correspond to any known entity and the course is sometimes not progressively deteriorating. Such children with white-matter changes and no known diagnosis were the subject of this Swedish multicentre study, in which MRI findings and clinical data from 100 children considered to have white-matter abnormalities were assessed during the period 1992-1995.