[Recommendations for individual comorbidity risk assessment in adult patients with psoriasis].

It has long been known that chronic inflammatory systemic diseases, such as psoriasis, pose a high risk of developing comorbidities. In everyday clinical practice, it is therefore of particular importance to identify patients who have an individually increased risk profile. In patients with psoriasis, the comorbidity patterns "metabolic syndrome", "cardiovascular comorbidity" and "mental illness" were identified as particularly relevant in epidemiological studies depending on the duration and severity of the disease.

Dermatology and medical law: the effect of legal issues on the treatment of patients in dermatological practices in southern Germany.

Background: Usage of modern therapies in the treatment of chronic dermatological diseases has proven to be effective but associated with high costs. High therapy costs might raise legal issues and even lead to recourse claims.

Objectives: To evaluate dermatologists’ interests and knowledge in medical law and the occurrence of recourse claims, and to assess the impact of medical law on clinical practice.

[Validity Study of the Cookie Theft Picture Test - Early Detection of Dementia Based on Linguistic Abnormalities].

Objective: Previous studies have provided inconsistent results regarding discriminatory language variables between subjects with dementia and healthy controls. In this study, using the (CTP), selected language variables are tested for predicting actual diagnoses.

Methods: 24 healthy subjects and 24 subjects with mild dementia were included in the present study.

Cognitive Blackouts in Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer's Dementia.

Background: Cognitive blackouts, e.g. moments of amnesia, disorientation, or perplexity may be an early sign of incipient Alzheimer's dementia (AD).

Memory and selective attention in multiple sclerosis: cross-sectional computer-based assessment in a large outpatient sample.

Cognitive impairments may have a severe impact on everyday functioning and quality of life of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). However, there are some methodological problems in the assessment and only a few studies allow a representative estimate of the prevalence and severity of cognitive impairments in MS patients. We applied a computer-based method, the memory and attention test (MAT), in 531 outpatients with MS, who were assessed at nine neurological practices or specialized outpatient clinics.

[Anaesthesiological management of patients with dementia].

The aging society challenges anaesthesiologists with a growing number of patients with dementia. These and their relatives worry about an aggravation of an already existing dementia or even the postoperative evocation of one. Common volatile anaesthetics and propofol are suspected to increase dementia - associated protein tau and amyloid-betalevels in the brain.

[Computer-based assessment of memory and attention: evaluation of the memory and attention test (MAT)].

Objective A computer-based test for the assessment of working and short-term memory and selective attention was evaluated in Alzheimer patients and controls.Methods By means of the MAT, working and short-term memory for verbal, figural and episodic material are assessed through recognition tasks. Selective attention is tested through visual samples in an oddball paradigm.

Rationale for transdermal drug administration in Alzheimer disease.

Transdermal patches are used for the treatment of various diseases including neurologic and psychiatric disorders such as Parkinson disease (PD), major depression, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. They are believed to offer many advantages over conventional oral therapies. By providing smoother, continuous drug delivery and steadier plasma levels, patches may reduce the incidence of side effects, thus making optimal therapeutic doses easier to attain and potentially improving treatment efficacy and compliance.

Domain-specific improvement of cognition on memantine in patients with Alzheimer's disease treated with rivastigmine.

Objective: Cholinergic therapy is used in mild-to-moderate Alzheimer's disease (AD) and antiglutamatergic therapy in moderate-to-severe AD. Global scales, as commonly used in clinical trials, blur specifics of disease progression and drug effects. The objective was to assess combination therapy of rivastigmine plus memantine by specific neuropsychological tests in patients with mild-to-moderate AD.

Adding memantine to rivastigmine therapy in patients with mild-to-moderate alzheimer's disease: results of a 12-week, open-label pilot study.

Objective: At present, inhibition of cholines-terase is the treatment of choice for subjects with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer's disease (AD). Memantine, a noncompetitive antagonist at N-methyl-d-aspartate receptors, is currently used to treat subjects with moderate-to-severe AD. The goal of this multicenter, open-label pilot study was to investigate whether combination therapy with memantine added to rivastigmine is safe and beneficial in subjects with mild-to-moderate AD.

Six-month course of mild cognitive impairment and affective symptoms in late-life depression.

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is frequent in patients with late-life depression. Previous studies indicate that cognitive performance in these patients is not or only marginally improved when they recover from depression. However, recovery from cognitive impairments due to depression may have a longer time course than recovery from affective symptoms.

Late-onset depression with mild cognitive deficits: electrophysiological evidences for a preclinical dementia syndrome.

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is present in up to 60% of patients with late-onset depression and constitutes a major diagnostic problem in geriatric psychiatry. Searching for sensitive markers for the detection of early brain changes suggestive of dementia, we compared this depressive risk population with mildly to moderately demented patients and cognitively unimpaired depressed patients using EEG power and coherence. We found a considerable similarity between Alzheimer's disease patients and cognitively impaired depressed patients regarding the cognitive profile and EEG pattern.

Pretreatment interhemispheric EEG coherence is related to seizure duration in right unilateral electroconvulsive therapy.

Objective: The relationships between pretreatment EEG parameters and seizure duration in electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) were studied in order to provide information useful for the prediction of ECT-induced seizures.

Methods: In 16 depressed patients treated with right unilateral ECT, pretreatment absolute band powers and interhemispheric coherences were assessed and correlated with the duration of the first ECT-induced seizure.

Results: Interhemispheric coherence for the central electrodes in the fast alpha band was positively correlated with seizure duration.

[The social situation of patients with late-life depression].

The social situation of patients with late-onset late-life depression admitted to a gerontopsychiatric day-clinic was assessed with respect to activities, social contacts, living conditions and finances. The patients were compared with an age- and sex-matched control group. Relationships of the social situation to life satisfaction and severity of depression were investigated.

[Mnestic impairment under olanzapine overdosage in an elderly patient].

Atypical antipsychotics are increasingly used for the treatment of elderly patients. However, there are only few studies on their efficacy and side effects in this patient group. The case of a 67-year old patient is presented, in whom under treatment with olanzapine in usual dosage, serum level increased into the toxic range.