Efficiency of Lidocaine Intramuscular and Intraosseous Trigger Point Injections in the Treatment of Residual Chronic Pain after Degenerative Lumbar Spinal Stenosis Decompression Surgery.

: Despite the long-term use of intramuscular and intraosseous lidocaine trigger point injections (LTPI) in the treatment of patients with low back pain, there have been no studies examining their efficiency in treatment of residual pain after degenerative lumbar spinal stenosis (DLSS) decompression surgery. The purpose of our research is to examine the LTPI efficiency in the treatment of residual lumbar pain after DLSS decompression surgery and to compare the analgesic and recovery effects of intramuscular and intraosseous LTPI administered in the L4-S1 region and in the posterior superior iliac spine (PSIS) after treatment and during four months of follow-up. : We observed 99 patients (F:50, M:49) aged 42 to 59 years with residual neurological disorders after DLSS decompression surgery.

Comparative Analysis of High-Frequency and Low-Frequency Transcutaneous Electrical Stimulation of the Right Median Nerve in the Regression of Clinical and Neurophysiological Manifestations of Generalized Anxiety Disorder.

: The anxiolytic effect of transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) is associated with the activation of endogenous inhibitory mechanisms in the central nervous system. Both low-frequency, high-amplitude TENS (LF-TENS) and high-frequency, low-amplitude TENS (HF-TENS) are capable of activating opioid, GABA, serotonin, muscarinic, and cannabinoid receptors. However, there has been no comparative analysis of the effectiveness of HF-TENS and LF-TENS in the treatment of GAD.

Ethnic Aspects of Valproic Acid P-Oxidation.

The safety of the use of psychotropic drugs, widely used in neurological and psychiatric practice, is an urgent problem in personalized medicine. This narrative review demonstrated the variability in allelic frequencies of low-functioning and non-functional single nucleotide variants in genes encoding key isoenzymes of valproic acid P-oxidation in the liver across different ethnic/racial groups. The sensitivity and specificity of pharmacogenetic testing panels for predicting the rate of metabolism of valproic acid by P-oxidation can be increased by prioritizing the inclusion of the most common risk allele characteristic of a particular population (country).

Biological Reductionism as an Obstacle to the Advancement of the Biopsychosocial Concept of Mental Disorders.

The substantial progress in neurobiological technologies has narrowed the horizons of many psychiatrists, ultimately leading them to focus exclusively on biomedical research, primarily aimed at studying the biological basis of mental illnesses. This has led to an unjustified dominance of the biomedical paradigm in understanding the nature of mental disorders, while virtually ignoring the study of other components of the disease related to the psychosocial maladjustment of patients. This trend, largely associated with advancements in neuroscience employing neuroimaging techniques to study the brain's activity as a biophysical object, has contributed to the development of such innovative field as evidence-based medicine.

Serum Interleukin-6 in Schizophrenia: Associations with Clinical and Sociodemographic Characteristics.

Background: Recently a significant part of schizophrenia studies have been focused on the role of cytokines, especially interleukin-6 (IL-6). Some authors have suggested a pathogenetic role for IL-6 in schizophrenia and concluded that therapy that centers on suppressing IL-6 activity may prove beneficial for certain categories of patients with the disorder. However, many questions about whether the changes in IL-6 levels in schizophrenia are primary, related to symptoms or caused by therapy, are concomitant metabolic disorders, are related to smoking or other secondary factors remain unanswered.

The Use of Umbilical Cord Blood Nucleated Cells in the Treatment of Regressive Autism: A Case Report.

Background: Interest in the issue of childhood autism has surged in the recent decades. At the same time, despite the significant progress achieved in understanding the etiological and pathogenetic aspects of the condition, effective ways to treat it have continued to elude us. Stem cell therapy appears to hold great promise in the treatment and rehabilitation of patients with both neurological diseases (cerebral palsy, hydrocephalus) and mental disorders (autism, schizophrenia).

Functional Recovery and Regenerative Effects of Direct Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation in Treatment of Post-COVID-19 Guillain-Barré and Acute Transverse Myelitis Overlap Syndrome: A Clinical Case.

Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) has proven effective in treating pain in many experimental and clinical studies. In addition to the analgesic effect, direct TENS of peripheral nerves had anti-inflammatory and regenerative effects in the treatment of distal polyneuropathy and spinal cord injury. This work demonstrates the experience of using direct TENS in the treatment of a 52-year-old patient with post-COVID-19 Guillain-Barré (GBS) and acute transverse myelitis (ATM) overlap syndrome.

Risk assessment of psychiatric complications in infectious diseases: CALCulation of prognostic indices on example of COVID-19.

Introduction: Factors such as coronavirus neurotropism, which is associated with a massive increase in pro-inflammatory molecules and neuroglial reactivity, along with experiences of intensive therapy wards, fears of pandemic, and social restrictions, are pointed out to contribute to the occurrence of neuropsychiatric conditions.

Aim: The aim of this study is to evaluate the role of COVID-19 inflammation-related indices as potential markers predicting psychiatric complications in COVID-19.

Methods: A total of 177 individuals were examined, with 117 patients from a temporary infectious disease ward hospitalized due to COVID-19 forming the experimental group and 60 patients from the outpatient department showing signs of acute respiratory viral infection comprising the validation group.

Computational psychiatry approach to stigma subtyping in patients with mental disorders: explicit and implicit internalized stigma.

Background: Psychiatric stigma has potentially controversial effects on patients health-related behaviors. It appears that both stigmatization and motivation in psychiatric patients are heterogeneous and multi-dimensional, and that the relationship between stigma and treatment motivation may be more complex than previously believed.

Aim: To determine psychiatric stigma subtypes as they relate to treatment motivation among inpatients with various mental disorders.

Efficiency of Direct Transcutaneous Electroneurostimulation of the Median Nerve in the Regression of Residual Neurological Symptoms after Carpal Tunnel Decompression Surgery.

Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is the most frequent entrapment neuropathy. CTS therapy includes wrist immobilization, kinesiotherapy, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, carpal tunnel steroid injection, acupuncture, and physical therapy. Carpal tunnel decompression surgery (CTDS) is recommended after failure of conservative therapy.

Molecular Basic of Pharmacotherapy of Cytokine Imbalance as a Component of Intervertebral Disc Degeneration Treatment.

Intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD) and associated conditions are an important problem in modern medicine. The onset of IDD may be in childhood and adolescence in patients with a genetic predisposition. With age, IDD progresses, leading to spondylosis, spondylarthrosis, herniated disc, spinal canal stenosis.

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Mimic Syndrome in a 24-Year-Old Man with Chiari 1 Malformation and Syringomyelia: A Clinical Case.

Chiari 1 Malformation (CM1) is classically defined as a caudal displacement of the cerebellar tonsils through the foramen magnum into the spinal cord. Modern imaging techniques and experimental studies disclose a different etiology for the development of CM1, but the main etiology factor is a structural defect in the skull as a deformity or partial reduction, which push down the lower part of the brain and cause the cerebellum to compress into the spinal canal. CM1 is classified as a rare disease.

Cytokine Imbalance as a Biomarker of Intervertebral Disk Degeneration.

The intervertebral disk degeneration (IDD) and its associated conditions are an important problem in modern medicine. The onset of IDD may be in childhood and adolescence in patients with a genetic predisposition. IDD progresses with age, leading to spondylosis, spondylarthrosis, intervertebral disk herniation, and spinal stenosis.

Therapeutic and Toxic Effects of Valproic Acid Metabolites.

Valproic acid (VPA) and its salts are psychotropic drugs that are widely used in neurological diseases (epilepsy, neuropathic pain, migraine, etc.) and psychiatric disorders (schizophrenia, bipolar affective disorder, addiction diseases, etc.).

Genetic Biomarkers of Antipsychotic-Induced Prolongation of the QT Interval in Patients with Schizophrenia.

Antipsychotics (AP) induced prolongation of the QT interval in patients with schizophrenia (Sch) is an actual interdisciplinary problem as it increases the risk of sudden death syndrome. Long QT syndrome (LQTS) as a cardiac adverse drug reaction is a multifactorial symptomatic disorder, the development of which is influenced by modifying factors (APs' dose, duration of APs therapy, APs polytherapy, and monotherapy, etc.) and non-modifying factors (genetic predisposition, gender, age, etc.

The Role of D-Serine and D-Aspartate in the Pathogenesis and Therapy of Treatment-Resistant Schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia (Sch) is a severe and widespread mental disorder. Antipsychotics (APs) of the first and new generations as the first-line treatment of Sch are not effective in about a third of cases and are also unable to treat negative symptoms and cognitive deficits of schizophrenics. This explains the search for new therapeutic strategies for a disease-modifying therapy for treatment-resistant Sch (TRS).

Cytokine Imbalance as a Biomarker of Treatment-Resistant Schizophrenia.

Treatment-resistant schizophrenia (TRS) is an important and unresolved problem in biological and clinical psychiatry. Approximately 30% of cases of schizophrenia (Sch) are TRS, which may be due to the fact that some patients with TRS may suffer from pathogenetically "non-dopamine" Sch, in the development of which neuroinflammation is supposed to play an important role. The purpose of this narrative review is an attempt to summarize the data characterizing the patterns of production of pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokines during the development of therapeutic resistance to APs and their pathogenetic and prognostic significance of cytokine imbalance as TRS biomarkers.

Possible Clinical and Pharmacogenetic Predictors of the Efficacy and Safety of Carbamazepine in Post-COVID-19 Depression.

Background: Individuals who have suffered from novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) are at risk for developing post-COVID neuropsychiatric disorders, which are an integral part of the Long COVID syndrome. Depression and/or anxiety are considered the most common psychiatric disorders after experiencing COVID-19. Certain antiepileptic drugs, notably, carbamazepine (CMZ), are effective in the treatment of mood disorders, especially as mood stabilizers in bipolar affective disorder (BAD), but the efficacy of CMZ in Long COVID remains to be established.

Blood and Urinary Biomarkers of Antipsychotic-Induced Metabolic Syndrome.

Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a clustering of at least three of the following five medical conditions: abdominal obesity, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, high serum triglycerides, and low serum high-density lipoprotein (HDL). Antipsychotic (AP)-induced MetS (AIMetS) is the most common adverse drug reaction (ADR) of psychiatric pharmacotherapy. Herein, we review the results of studies of blood (serum and plasma) and urinary biomarkers as predictors of AIMetS in patients with schizophrenia (Sch).