General practitioners' views on the diagnostic innovations in DSM-5 somatic symptom disorder - A focus group study.

Background: The innovations concerning the new diagnosis somatic symptom disorder (SSD) in the DSM-5 include the introduction of psychological diagnostic criteria and the elimination of the need to exclude all potential somatic causes of the symptoms. Thus far, it is unknown how general practitioners (GPs) evaluate the innovations conceptually and regarding their applicability in primary care.

Method: We performed six focus groups with GPs.

Efficacy of short-term inpatient rehabilitation for dementia patients and caregivers: prospective cohort study.

Background/aims: The efficacy of nonpharmacological and multicomponent treatments in patients with dementia is under discussion, as is the ongoing debate which endpoints best measure efficacy.

Methods: 194 dyads of dementia patients and their proxies interested in a combined short-term inpatient rehabilitative treatment were assessed in the patients' homes.

Results: Analysis showed that cognition in male patients (cognitive part of the Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale: p = 0.

Appraising the need for care in Alzheimer's disease.

Background: Increasing incidences of dementia necessitate the improvement of supportive measures for patients suffering from this disease and their proxies. Clinicians without psychiatric backgrounds and others involved in appraising the supportive needs of dementia patients, such as those who allocate nursing insurance, base their appraisals on the ability of patients to perform basic and instrumental activities of daily living (B-ADL, iADL). Our aim was to investigate whether a reduced ability of the patient to perform ADL is sufficient to adequately assess the supportive needs of family caregivers.

Gender-dependence of substituted judgment on quality of life in patients with dementia.

Background: Substituted judgment asks the proxy to decide what the patient would have decided, had he or she been competent. It is unclear whether substituted judgment of the patient's quality of life can serve as a surrogate measure in patients with dementia.

Methods: 212 patients with dementia and their proxies were interviewed in their homes.

Staging dementia using proxy-reported activities of daily living.

Background/aim: It has been questioned whether cognitive and behavioral scales sufficiently address the impact of dementia on the everyday life of patients. Therefore, other instruments are used, such as scales of activities of daily living (ADL). Our goal was to analyze variables influencing the appraisal of ADL.

Increased resting-state perfusion after repeated encoding is related to later retrieval of declarative associative memories.

Electrophysiological studies in animals have shown coordinated reactivation of neuronal ensembles during a restricted time period of behavioral inactivity that immediately followed active encoding. In the present study we directly investigated off-line processing of associative memory formation in the human brain. Subjects' regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) as a surrogate marker of neural activity during rest was measured by MR-based perfusion imaging in a sample of 14 healthy male subjects prior to (Pre2) and after (Post) extensive learning of 24 face-name associations within a selective reminding task (SR).

Generic quality of life assessment in dementia patients: a prospective cohort study.

Background: Quality of life (QoL) is increasingly used to characterize the impact of disease and the efficacy of interventions.

Methods: Prospective cohort study in patients' and proxies' homes with 137 patients with dementia (age 52 to 88; Mini-Mental Status Examination (MMSE) 3 to 28) and their proxies (age 43 to 90). MMSE, Behave-AD, Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS), and Bayer-ADL scale (B-ADL), and the Euroqol (EQ-5D; patient self-rating, proxy self-rating, and proxy-rating of patient).

Functional compensation of increasing memory encoding demands in the hippocampus.

The hippocampus is well known to contribute to episodic memory encoding. Here we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate the hippocampal response to exponentially varying encoding demands while forming associations between faces and names. We found that only the left hippocampus exhibited a stepped modulation of neuronal activity, which was furthermore correlated with individual memory performance.