How Palliation Can Improve Care of Patients With Severe and Enduring Anorexia Nervosa.

Palliative care refers to clinical interventions whose purpose is relief of suffering, not treatment of a patient's underlying illness. Palliation is widely used in the care of patients with serious physical illnesses, but its use in caring for patients with severe, persistent mental illnesses is controversial. This commentary on a case summarizes emerging themes in palliative psychiatry and explores its ethical feasibility in the care of patients with severe and enduring anorexia nervosa.

The association between educational attainment and SCA 3 age of onset and disease course.

Background: The number of trinucleotide CAG repeats is inversely correlated with the age at onset (AAO) of motor symptoms in individuals with Spinocerebellar Ataxia type 3 (SCA 3) and may be responsible for 50%-60% of the variability in AAO. Drawing from a social determinants of health model, we sought to determine if educational attainment further contributes to the AAO and motor symptom progression of SCA 3.

Methods: We performed a retrospective chart review in which twenty individuals met criteria for inclusion and had been seen by an ataxia specialist at our hospital between January 2005 and July 2019.