Transcutaneous Vagus Nerve Stimulation in Patients With Severe Traumatic Brain Injury: A Feasibility Trial.

Objectives: Preclinical studies have shown that surgically implanted vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) promotes recovery of consciousness and cognitive function following experimental traumatic brain injury (TBI). The aim of this study is to report the feasibility and safety of a noninvasive transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation (tVNS) in patients with persistent impairment of consciousness following severe TBI.

Materials And Methods: The feasibility of tVNS was evaluated in five patients presenting with diffuse axonal injury and reduced dominant EEG activity one month following severe TBI.

Alterations in the brain's connectome during recovery from severe traumatic brain injury: protocol for a longitudinal prospective study.

Introduction: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is considered one of the most pervasive causes of disability in people under the age of 45. TBI often results in disorders of consciousness, and clinical assessment of the state of consciousness in these patients is challenging due to the lack of behavioural responsiveness. Functional neuroimaging offers a means to assess these patients without the need for behavioural signs, indicating that brain connectivity plays a major role in consciousness emergence and maintenance.

Combined detection of depression and anxiety in epilepsy patients using the Neurological Disorders Depression Inventory for Epilepsy and the World Health Organization well-being index.

Purpose: To validate the Danish version of the Neurological Disorders Depression Inventory for Epilepsy (NDDI-E), and compare it with the World Health Organization index for psychological well-being (WHO-5) as screening tests for depression and anxiety in epilepsy patients.

Methods: Epilepsy outpatients filled out NDDI-E and WHO-5. A Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI) as gold standard for psychiatric diagnoses was carried out with every patient.

The interictal dysphoric disorder in patients with epilepsy: A doubtful disorder lacking diagnostic tools.

Purpose: To examine adult epilepsy outpatients for the existence of the interictal dysphoric disorder (IDD) using the interictal dysphoric disorder inventory (IDDI), the overlap between IDD, depression, and anxiety, and the reproducibility of IDDI.

Methods: Epilepsy outpatients were assessed with the Danish IDDI and self-report inventories for depression and anxiety. Patients with abnormal scores were further assessed with the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI).

[Epilepsy treatment by vagus nerve stimulation].

Epilepsy is a common neurological disorder, and between one fourth and one third of the patients do not obtain seizure freedom after treatment with antiepileptic drugs. If the epileptic seizures in such patients have severe consequences, the patients should be assessed for epilepsy surgery. In case epilepsy surgery is not feasible, vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) should be offered.

Forest law compliance and enforcement: the case of on-farm timber extraction in Ghana.

The paper investigates law compliance in case of on-farm timber extraction in Ghana. It empirically investigates compliance with rules that (i) require timber operators to obtain prior and informed consent from the farmers, (ii) require timber operators to pay appropriate and timely compensation for crop damage caused by timber extraction and (iii) ban chainsaw lumbering. The study documents a low level of compliance in all three domains.

Truncation of the Down syndrome candidate gene DYRK1A in two unrelated patients with microcephaly.

We have identified and characterized two unrelated patients with prenatal onset of microcephaly, intrauterine growth retardation, feeding problems, developmental delay, and febrile seizures/epilepsy who both carry a de novo balanced translocation that truncates the DYRK1A gene at chromosome 21q22.2. DYRK1A belongs to the dual-specificity tyrosine phosphorylation-regulated kinase (DYRK) family, which is highly conserved throughout evolution.

Balanced translocation in a patient with severe myoclonic epilepsy of infancy disrupts the sodium channel gene SCN1A.

In a patient with severe myoclonic epilepsy of infancy (SMEI), we identified a de novo balanced translocation, t(2;5)(q24.3,q34). The breakpoint on chromosome 2q24.