Treatment of neuropathic pain with the capsaicin 8% patch: is pretreatment with lidocaine necessary?

The capsaicin 8% patch can effectively treat neuropathic pain, but application can cause discomfort or a burning sensation. Until March 2013, it was recommended that patients be pretreated with a topical anesthetic, for example lidocaine, before capsaicin patch application. However, speculation existed over the need for pretreatment and its effectiveness in alleviating treatment-associated discomfort.

Psychogenic nonepileptic seizures: a pilot study of a brief educational intervention.

Purpose: Attending to psychological support and education from the time of diagnosis will assist patients in their acceptance of the need for psychological services.

Design And Methods: An intervention was provided at the time of diagnosis of psychogenic nonepileptic seizures. This randomized control pilot study examined outcomes 6-8 weeks after discharge from the hospital.

Clinical correlate of EEG rhythmicity.

The widespread use of the routine EEG in clinical practice was a major development in the treatment of patients with ill-defined spells thought to be epileptic. Not every finding on the EEG is suggestive of epilepsy, and the EEG is subject to over-interpretation, which may lead to misdiagnosis and incorrect treatment. Although supplemented by other procedures, the EEG remains a cost-effective and noninvasive way to diagnose spells.

An artificial neural network approach to diagnosing epilepsy using lateralized bursts of theta EEGs.

Determining the cause of seizures is a significant medical problem, as misdiagnosis can result in increased morbidity and even mortality of patients. The reported research evaluates the efficacy of using an artificial neural network (ANN) for determining epileptic seizure occurrences for patients with lateralized bursts of theta (LBT) EEGs. Training and test cases are acquired from examining records of 1,500 consecutive adult seizure patients.

Progression of electroclinical changes in complex partial status epilepticus: filling in the blanks.

Treiman has described five electroclinical stages through which the EEG progresses during generalized convulsive status epilepticus (GCSE). The EEG can show similar patterns in patients with complex partial status epilepticus (CPSE), but there is no agreement as to whether the different patterns seen in the human EEG result from a similar orderly progression through similar stages. We report the case of a patient in CPSE whose EEG passed progressively through two of the earlier stages described by Treiman.