Treatment of Post-Stroke Depression.

Purpose Of Review: This review presents a critical appraisal of current therapeutic strategies for patients with post-stroke depression (PSD). We present the reader with the most recent evidence to support pharmacological, psychosocial, and neuromodulation interventions in PSD. We also discuss the relevance of using antidepressants and psychotherapy to prevent PSD and discuss evidence that antidepressant treatment may reduce mortality after stroke.

The neuropsychiatry of hyperkinetic movement disorders: insights from neuroimaging into the neural circuit bases of dysfunction.

Background: Movement disorders, particularly those associated with basal ganglia disease, have a high rate of comorbid neuropsychiatric illness.

Methods: We consider the pathophysiological basis of the comorbidity between movement disorders and neuropsychiatric illness by 1) reviewing the epidemiology of neuropsychiatric illness in a range of hyperkinetic movement disorders, and 2) correlating findings to evidence from studies that have utilized modern neuroimaging techniques to investigate these disorders. In addition to diseases classically associated with basal ganglia pathology, such as Huntington disease, Wilson disease, the neuroacanthocytoses, and diseases of brain iron accumulation, we include diseases associated with pathology of subcortical white matter tracts, brain stem nuclei, and the cerebellum, such as metachromatic leukodystrophy, dentatorubropallidoluysian atrophy, and the spinocerebellar ataxias.

Psychiatric syndromes in Parkinson's disease.

Purpose Of Review: To examine progress about relevant behavioural and psychiatric disorders in Parkinson's disease, such as depression, apathy, psychosis, and impulse control disorder.

Recent Findings: Several recent studies have characterized the phenomenology of depression in Parkinson's disease, and randomized controlled trials have demonstrated the efficacy of tricyclics, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and psychotherapy for depression in Parkinson's disease. Apathy is a valid behavioural syndrome in Parkinson's disease and is associated with depression and cognitive deficits.

Point-of-care testing of capillary glucose in the exclusion and diagnosis of diabetes in remote Australia.

Objectives: To determine the utility of point-of-care (POC) capillary blood glucose measurements in the diagnosis and exclusion of diabetes in usual practice in primary health care in remote areas.

Design: Cross-sectional study comparing POC capillary glucose results with corresponding venous glucose levels measured in a reference laboratory.

Participants: 200 participants aged 16-65 years enrolled: 198 had POC capillary glucose measurements; 164 also had acceptable venous glucose laboratory results.

Addicted to the good life: harm reduction in chronic disease management.

Individual values sometimes lead patients to make lifestyle choices that have negative effects on their health. Doctors tend to feel responsible for delivering best-practice health outcomes to such patients, but also feel inclined to respect their patients' values. The adoption of a harm reduction model may provide a strategy for delivering the best care that is compatible with each patient's chosen lifestyle.