Are Dietary Supplements and Nutraceuticals Effective for Musculoskeletal Health and Cognitive Function? A Scoping Review.

Objective: The aim of our scoping review was to summarize the state of the art regarding micronutrients in order to identify which of them might effectively improve health status in the areas typically impaired in older people: bone, skeletal muscle, and cognitive function.

Design: Scoping review.

Methods: The Italian Study Group on Healthy Aging by Nutraceuticals and Dietary Supplements (HANDS) performed this scoping review, based on the following steps: doing a list of micronutrients related with musculoskeletal or cognitive functions, included in dietary supplements and nutraceuticals commercialized in Italy; planning a research on PubMed, according to an evidence-based approach, in order to the most relevant positive study for each micronutrient into each of the three areas involved (bone, skeletal muscle and cognitive function); identifying the micronutrients effective in maintaining or achieving an adequate health status in older people, specifying the effective and safe daily doses, according to the selected studies.

Headache, low back pain, other nociceptive and mixed pain conditions in neurorehabilitation. Evidence and recommendations from the Italian Consensus Conference on Pain in Neurorehabilitation.

Pain is a disabling symptom and is often the foremost symptom of conditions for which patients undergo neurorehabilitation. We systematically searched the PubMed and Embase electronic databases for current evidence on the frequency, evolution, predictors, assessment, and pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatment of pain in patients with headache, craniofacial pain, low back pain, failed back surgery syndrome, osteoarticular pain, myofascial pain syndrome, fibromyalgia, and chronic pelvic pain. Despite the heterogeneity of published data, consensus was reached on pain assessment and management of patients with these conditions and on the utility of a multidisciplinary approach to pain therapy that combines the benefits of pharmacological therapy, physiotherapy, neurorehabilitation, and psychotherapy.

Pediatric selective mutism therapy: a randomized controlled trial.

Background: Selective mutism (SM) is a rare disease in children coded by DSM-5 as an anxiety disorder. Despite the disabling nature of the disease, there is still no specific treatment.

Aim: The aims of this study were to verify the efficacy of six-month standard psychomotor treatment and the positive changes in lifestyle, in a population of children affected by SM.

Back pain-related disability and quality of life in patients affected by vertebral fractures: data from baseline characteristics of population enrolled in Denosumab In Real Practice (DIRP).

Background: Spine fragility fractures lead to a significant acute and/or chronic pain and worsening of quality of life. Denosumab is effective in reducing the risk of new vertebral fractures, but its effectiveness on pain relief and improvement of the quality of life in patients with spine fractures are not well known.

Aim: The aim of this paper is to describe the baseline demographic and clinical characteristics, back pain-related disability and quality of life of the Denosumab In Real Practice (DIRP) study population.

Hypovitaminosis D is associated with a reduction in upper and lower limb muscle strength and physical performance in post-menopausal women: a retrospective study.

Background: Elderly people experience a gradual loss of muscle strength and a reduction of serum levels of vitamin D and of vitamin D receptor expression in skeletal muscle cells.

Aims: The aim of our study was to evaluate the association among serum levels of 25-hydroxy-vitamin D [25(OH)D3], muscle strength, and physical performance in post-menopausal women.

Methods: In our retrospective case-control study, we analyzed data from medical records of post-menopausal women aged ≥ 50 years.