Frontal lobe dysfunction as a predictor of depression and anxiety following temporal lobe epilepsy surgery.

Objective: Predictors of psychiatric outcome following TLE surgery have proved elusive and represent a current challenge in the practice of TLE surgery. This prospective study investigated whether frontal lobe dysfunction is predictive of poorer psychiatric outcomes.

Methods: Forty-nine unilateral TLE surgical patients were assessed using the Beck Depression Inventory-Fast Screen (BDI-FS) and Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) preoperatively and 6 and 12 months postoperatively.

The utility of polysomnography for the diagnosis of NREM parasomnias: an observational study over 4 years of clinical practice.

Polysomnography (PSG) is considered the gold standard for diagnosis of non-rapid eye movement (NREM) parasomnias, however its diagnostic yield has been rarely reported. We aimed to assess the diagnostic value of polysomnography in different categories of patients with suspected NREM parasomnia and define variables that can affect the outcome. 124 adults referred for polysomnography for suspected NREM parasomnia were retrospectively identified and divided into clinical categories based on their history.

Loss of rapid eye movement sleep atonia in patients with REM sleep behavioral disorder, narcolepsy, and isolated loss of REM atonia.

Study Objectives: To compare the amounts of REM sleep without atonia (RSWA) between patients with REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD), "isolated loss of REM atonia," narcolepsy, and control subjects and determine if there were threshold values for the amount of RSWA that differentiate each group from controls.

Methods: Retrospective analyses of polysomnography (PSG) records were used employing strict quantitative criteria for the measurement of phasic and tonic EMG activity during REM sleep. The PSG recordings of 47 individuals were analyzed (RBD 16, isolated loss of REM atonia 11, narcolepsy 10, control 10).

The effect of posterior hypothalamus region deep brain stimulation on sleep.

Background: Early observations by von Economo showed that the posterior part of the hypothalamus (PH) plays a prominent role in sleep-wake regulation. The PH is a candidate area involved in cluster headaches and other trigeminal autonomic cephalalgias (TACs) and is targeted for deep brain stimulation (DBS).

Case Reports: Sleep studies in two men, 69- and 39-years-old, with pre-existing sleep disorders, before and after PH-DBS for pharamacoresistant cluster headache and SUNCT syndrome showed that PH-DBS led to a dramatic alteration of the patients' sleep patterns.

Periodic lateralized epileptiform discharges (PLEDs) as the sole electrographic correlate of a complex partial seizure.

We describe a patient in whom the only electrographic manifestation of a complex partial seizure recorded by video-EEG telemetry was periodic lateralized epileptiform discharges (PLEDs) with a left anterior temporal emphasis. The abnormality, which persisted throughout the whole recorded seizure, lends support to the claim that PLEDs can be an ictal phenomenon.