Patterns of benzodiazepine prescribing by neuropsychiatrists and general practitioners for elderly patients in Germany in 2014 .

Background: The patterns of benzodiazepine prescriptions in older adults are of general and scientific interest as they are not yet well understood. The aim of this study was to compare the prescription patterns of benzodiazepines in elderly people in Germany to determine the share or proportion treated by general practitioners (GP) and neuropsychiatrists (NP).

Methods: This study included 31,268 and 6,603 patients between the ages of 65 and 100 with at least one benzodiazepine prescription in 2014 from GP and NP, respectively.

Twitter psychosis: a rare variation or a distinct syndrome?

The authors report the development of psychosis in a young woman coinciding with excessive use of the online communication system Twitter and the results of an experimental account to argue that Twitter may have a high potential to induce psychosis in predisposed users.

Agitation in nursing home residents with dementia (VIDEANT trial): effects of a cluster-randomized, controlled, guideline implementation trial.

Objective: To test the effect of a complex guideline-based intervention on agitation and psychotropic prescriptions.

Design, Setting, Participants: Cluster randomized controlled trial (VIDEANT) with blinded assessment of outcome in 18 nursing homes in Berlin, Germany, comprising 304 dementia patients.

Intervention: Training, support, and activity therapy intervention, delivered at the level of each nursing home, focusing on the management of agitation in dementia.

Decline in prefrontal catecholamine synthesis explains age-related changes in cognitive speed beyond regional grey matter atrophy.

Purpose: Age-related decline in cognitive speed has been associated with prefrontal dopamine D1 receptor availability, but the contribution of presynaptic dopamine and noradrenaline innervation to age-related changes in cognition is unknown.

Methods: In a group of 16 healthy participants aged 22-61 years, we used PET and the radioligand FDOPA to measure catecholamine synthesis capacity (K (in) (app); millilitres per gram per minute) and the digit symbol substitution test to measure cognitive speed, a component of fluid IQ.

Results: Cognitive speed was associated with the magnitude of K (in) (app) in the prefrontal cortex (p < 0.

Correlates of agitation and depression in nursing home residents with dementia.

Background: The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between dementia severity, age, gender, and prescription of psychotropics, and syndromes of agitation and depression in a sample of nursing home residents with dementia.

Methods: The Cohen-Mansfield Agitation Inventory (CMAI) was administered to residents with dementia (N = 304) of 18 nursing homes. Agitation symptoms were clustered using factorial analysis.

The pharmacotherapy of neuropsychiatric symptoms of dementia: a cross-sectional study in 18 homes for the elderly in Berlin.

Background: The neuropsychiatric symptoms of dementia, including aggressiveness, agitation, depression, and apathy are often treated with psychotropic drugs and are a frequent reason for hospitalization, placing an economic burden on the health care system. International guidelines recommend syndrome-specific pharmacotherapy. We studied the question whether drug-prescribing practices are, in fact, syndrome-specific.

[Pharmacotherapy of neuropsychiatric symptoms in dementia in nursing homes: a comparison of service provision by psychiatric outpatient clinics and primary care psychiatrists].

Background: Neuropsychiatric symptoms of dementia like agitation, depression and apathy often result in increased prescriptions of psychotropics. In Germany, outpatient clinics at psychiatric hospitals play an important role in the treatment of neuropsychiatric symptoms in nursing homes. The aim of this study was to test whether the severity and pharmacotherapy differed in patients treated by outpatient clinics at psychiatric hospitals, as compared to primary care specialists.

Adjunct treatment with levodopa in a patient with dementia with Lewy bodies, delusions and severe neuroleptic hypersensitivity syndrome.

We report on the treatment of a patient suffering from dementia with Lewy bodies who initially presented with severe neurological and psychopathological symptoms. After treating the patient with levodopa and clozapine, these symptoms remitted.

Altered function of ventral striatum during reward-based decision making in old age.

Normal aging is associated with a decline in different cognitive domains and local structural atrophy as well as decreases in dopamine concentration and receptor density. To date, it is largely unknown how these reductions in dopaminergic neurotransmission affect human brain regions responsible for reward-based decision making in older adults. Using a learning criterion in a probabilistic object reversal task, we found a learning stage by age interaction in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) during decision making.

Role of ventral striatum in reward-based decision making.

So far, the specific role of the ventral striatum in reward-based decision making remains elusive. Here, we examined the role of the ventral striatum in reward-based decision making using functional MRI and a probabilistic object reversal task. During decision making, activity in the ventral striatum increased monotonically as a function of association learning and was greatest when the individuals expected to be rewarded for the decision with high certainty.