The Most Frequent Psychiatric Comorbidities in Bulgarian Patients With Epilepsy: Their Connection With the Main Clinical Characteristics and Quality of Life.

Aim:  The objective of this study is to determine and compare the relationship of the most common psychiatric comorbidities in Bulgarian patients with epilepsy with the main clinical characteristics, as well as to evaluate their impact on certain aspects of the quality of life.

Clinical Rationale:  Psychiatric comorbidities occur in about one-third of people with epilepsy throughout their lifetime, and their incidence is much greater in high-risk groups such as patients with treatment-resistant epilepsy.

Material And Methods:  The study group consisted of 129 participants, of whom 104 were divided into four groups according to the presence of one of the most frequently diagnosed psychiatric comorbidities in our patients with epilepsy: personality and behavioral disorder (PBD) (n=25), mild to moderate depressive disorder (n=26), anxiety disorder (n=32), and dissociative and conversion disorders (n=21).

Association between pain threshold and manifested pain assessed using a PD-specific pain scale in Parkinson's disease.

Background: The neurodegenerative process in Parkinson's disease (PD) affects both dopaminergic and non-dopaminergic structures, which determine the wide range of motor and non-motor symptoms (NMS), including different types of pain. Diverse mechanisms contribute to pain in PD. Abnormal nociceptive processing is considered a distinctive feature of the disease.

Local carotid stiffness, hemodynamic forces and blood viscosity in patients with cerebral lacunar infarctions.

Objective: The carotid stiffness is an important factor in the pathogenesis of cerebrovascular small vessel disease. Our study aimed to evaluate the relation of the local arterial stiffness of the common carotid artery (CCA) to the hemodynamic forces and blood viscosity in patients with cerebral lacunar infarctions (LI).

Methods: Twenty-two patients with chronic LI and 15 age-matched controls were examined.

Effectiveness of early onset of rehabilitation on the postural stability after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction.

Purpose: The objective of this study was to evaluate the early onset of rehabilitation on restoring the postural stability of patients after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR) at the 3rd postoperative month.

Methods: Forty patients after ACLR and twenty healthy controls took part in the investigation. The patients were divided into two groups, depending on the start of their proprioceptive rehabilitation program: an experimental group - on the 5th day after the surgery and a control group - on around the 30th postoperative day.

Translation, adaptation and validation of the Bulgarian version of the King's Parkinson's Disease Pain Scale.

Background: The purpose of the present study was to translate and cross-culturally adapt the King's Parkinson's Disease Pain Scale (KPPS) into Bulgarian and to investigate its psychometric properties in order to provide a validated Parkinson's disease-specific pain instrument in Bulgarian language (KPPS-BG).

Methods: Translation into Bulgarian and a cultural adaptation were performed to obtain KPPS-BG. A total of 162 patients with idiopathic Parkinson's disease were screened for pain using the complementary to the KPPS questionnaire - King's Parkinson's Disease Pain Questionnaire (KPPQ).