Forensic-Psychiatric Risk Evaluations: Perspectives of Forensic Psychiatric Experts and Older Incarcerated Persons From Switzerland.

Forensic-psychiatric risk assessments of persons in prisons aim to provide treatment for their mental health disorders to prevent risk of recidivism. Based on the outcomes of such evaluations, it is decided, for instance, whether the person can be released or be assigned to further treatment with or without privileges. A negative evaluation would mean that the assessed person must remain in prison or in a forensic institution until his or her mental health has improved to live safely in the community.

Mutational spectrum of the CHAC gene in patients with chorea-acanthocytosis.

Chorea-acanthocytosis (ChAc) is an autosomal recessive neurological disorder whose characteristic features include hyperkinetic movements and abnormal red blood cell morphology. Mutations in the CHAC gene on 9q21 were recently found to cause chorea-acanthocytosis. CHAC encodes a large, novel protein with a yeast homologue implicated in protein sorting.

From spinal shock to spasticity: neuronal adaptations to a spinal cord injury.

Objective: To investigate the adaptational changes in excitability of spinal neuronal circuits below the level of lesion from spinal shock to spasticity in patients with spinal cord injury (SCI).

Methods: More than 6 months after an acute SCI, clinical follow-up examinations were paralleled by electrophysiologic recordings with tibial nerve stimulation (M-wave, F-wave, H-reflex, and flexor reflex).

Results: During spinal shock, the loss of tendon tap reflexes and flaccid muscle tone were associated with low persistence of F-waves and loss of flexor reflexes, whereas H-reflexes were already elicitable.

[Descending paralysis caused by wound botulism. A case report].

We report on the history and clinical findings of an injecting drug abuser in the Canton of Zurich who presented with multiple deep abscesses in the arms and legs. A diagnosis of wound botulism was made based on his clinical presentation with a rapidly progressing descending paralysis starting at the cranial nerves, a neuromuscular junction disorder on neurophysiologic testing, and normal findings on lumbar puncture. Several cases of wound botulism have occurred in i.

Progressive hemiparesis in frontal lobe degeneration.

Hemiparesis has rarely been observed in frontal lobe degeneration (FLD). We describe the clinical, neuropsychological and neuroimaging findings of a patient in whom a slowly evolving hemiparesis was the principal symptom of FLD, and of 2 demented patients in whom hemiparesis was an early and prominent symptom. The occurrence of central motor deficits in FLD is reviewed, and a synopsis of the differential diagnosis of hemiparesis in neurodegenerative diseases is given.

[Choreoacanthocytosis. A neurologic-hematologic syndrome].

A 43 year old male patient is reported who presented at the age of 33 years with a hyperkinetic movement disorder. At the time of presentation orofacial dyskinesias, tic-like hyperkinesias with vocalisation and behavioural disturbance dominated the clinical picture. In the course of his illness he developed a marked truncal choreoathetosis and a symmetrical, distal, predominantly motor polyneuropathy with wasting of lower leg muscles.