The research purpose is the efficacy of brain transcatheter laserrevascularization in the treatment of atherosclerotic Parkinsonism, bothburdened and not burdened with dementia.

37 examined and operated on patients with severe forms of specific motordisorders aged 52-80 (average age 74), male – 28 (75.68%), female – 9 (24.32%),who had been diagnosed with atherosclerotic Parkinsonism. The examination planincluded CT, MRI, SG, REG, and cerebral MUGA.

Signsof dementia equal to CDR-1 were detected in 14 (37.84%) patients. Intracranialatherosclerotic lesion type – 31 (83.78%) patients, mixed type – 6 (16.22%). Numerous signs of calcium salts deposition in intracranial arteries walls – 33(89.19%) patients. Signs of involutive changes accompanied by subarachnoidspace extension – 31 (83.78%).

Transcatheterinterventions were performed in the period of 2-8 years after the disease symptomsonset.

Good immediate angiographic outcome – restoration of intracranial vessels angioarchitectonics- was obtained in 35 (94.59%) patients. After 6-12 months, reduction of involutivebrain changes – 29 patients (78.38%). Dementia regression – all 14 (100%)patients.

Goodclinical outcome – total discontinuation of antiparkinsonian drugs – 11(29.73%) patients.

Satisfactoryclinical outcome – significant reduction in doses of antiparkinsonian drugs -26 (70.27%) patients.

Nocase is characterized by absence of a pronounced effect.

These results demonstrate the high efficiency of brain transcatheter laserrevascularization in the treatment of patients with atherosclerotic Parkinsonism. The method allows not only to restore motor function, but also to causeregression of dementia and cognitive impairment.

Cognitive deficits are today considered as core symptoms of schizophrenia. The most classical techniques aimed at enhancing learning and retention focus on repetition of learning, and are not very efficient on a long time scale. On the other hand, the subjective knowledge and feelings about memory provide the basis for regulating one's memory-related behavior. Metamemory refers to the subjective awareness of one's memory capacity (monitoring), and the control of the related memory behavior. The self monitoring approachis based on having learners judge which material have been learned or not well learned. It has been successfully used to enhance learning in young and older healthy participants. Monitoring ability has been shown to be relatively spared in schizophrenia.

The aim of this study was to assess the efficiency in patients with schizophrenia of this potential learning method, self-monitoring, including a single learning session, in comparison with relearning.

After a single word pair encoding phase (60 pairs), patients took part in a single session devoted to either re-study, or self-monitoring. The strength of the cue-target association was manipulated. 48 hours later, there was a final cued-recall test.

Preliminary results show that, regarding difficult material, most of the patients having used the self-monitoring procedure had better levels of performance (8/10: performance > 50%) than those having re-studied (3/9: performance > 50%).

If the results are confirmed with greater patient's samples, then self-monitoring could represent an interesting and novel, less stressful learning strategy for patients with schizophrenia.

Conducted acomprehensive examination of 112 patients of both sexes, with an established diagnosis of epilepsy, seizure focus, duration of the disease not more than 10 years, who have cognitive and affective disorders.

In the research with the aim to study the cognitive and affectivedisorders in patients with epilepsy and to develop principles for correction andrehabilitation of patients.

Cognitive function in patients with epilepsy were evaluatedaccording to the Mini–mental state examination scale (MMSE).

We systematized affective disorder inpatients by etiopathogenic factor: psychogenic, combined, medications (due tothe influence of anticonvulsants) and nosogenic (provoked by the disease). Themain types of clinical variants of non-psychotic affective disorders inpatients with epilepsy in the interictal period were indicated: depressivedisorders, affective reactions, dysphoria and obsessive-phobic disorders.

At the initial examination before the study in all patients cognitivedisturbances were established (MMSE): 20,5 ± 2,5 point. These indicators ofcognitive productivity can be classified as “mild dementia “ (20-23points).

Anintegrated approach was consists of methods of pharmacotherapy, psychotherapy,and psychoeducational training. Patients received Lamotrigine (the traditionalscheme was used), as well as complex psychotherapeutic methods of influence:rational psychotherapy, family psychotherapy, cognitive training, andpsychoeducational sociotherapy programs.

The study demonstrated that this rehabilitation programbased on the clinically differentiated approach is the main prerequisite foreffective social and employment recovery of epilepsy patients with cognitive andaffective disorders.

Cross-frequency modulation (CfM) supports the synchronization and the coordination of the high-frequency activity of large brain areas and it may represent a generalized mode of systems communication and integration (Canolty and Knight, 2010). CfM, therefore, it is likely to be a key element of the brain integration (He et al, 2010), featuring the learning process (Tort et al, 2009), the higher cognitive functions and the healthy thought process (Allen et al, 2011) as well as the emergence of consciousness (Melloni et al, 2007, Tononi, 2010).

The present study was focused on the relationship between CfM and cognitive performance compared withother classical neurophysiologic parameters.

A cognitive task, similar to the WCST, was developed. 71 Channels EEG was recorded by means of EGI Geodesic equipment set to a sample ratio of 250 Hz. Data are processed using the EEGLAB Matlab Package (Delorme and Makeig, 2004). Independent Component Analysis, Cluster Analysis with dipole projection were performed. Cross Frequency Modulation (CfM) indexes between EEG low frequency phase and high frequency amplitude have been computed also.

Present preliminary data are performed on a sample of healthy subjects, aged between 20 and 45 years old. Avarage response time was about 2 sec, and an anticipation of the P3 pick was observed the case of a persistent correct answers. A greater CfM was associated to best performances, in some clusters only.

This preliminary results support the hypothesis that CfM may have a role in brain network integration.

Schizophrenia (SKZ) is a disease characterized by positive and negative symptoms, thoughts and behaviour disorganization with a progressive socio-cognitive impairment1; deficits in facial emotion recognition (FER) represent one of the most serious problems linked to interpersonal problems2. In addition, these patients have often comorbid condition of alcohol and substances abuse3.

to compare the ability of FER in patients with SKZ using alcohol and/or substances (SKZ+SUD) compared to schizophrenics without SUD (SUD-SKZ).

we enrolled 53 subjects (M=40, F=13) with a DSM-IV diagnosis of SKZ (SCID I). The sample was divided according to alcohol and/or substance abuse (AUS and DUS) into two groups, compared for socio-demographic and clinic characteristics (PANSS and Bell model4). We analyzed the association between abuse condition and Ekman test performance.

SKZ+SUD (n=20; M=16, F=4) and SKZ-SUD (n=33; M=24, F=9) show a statistically significant age difference with a mean (SD) of 38.4 years (10.5) and 46.0 years (8.7) respectively (p=0.006). SKZ+SUD Ekman test score (mean=43.1, SD=6.9) was statistically higher (p=0.006) than SKZ-SUD (mean=34.6, SD=12.0). The different performance was more evident in comparison with poly-abusers (44.94±7.05 vs 12.04±34.6; p=0.002). We further noticed the role of disorganization as a mediator of the relationship between abuse and FER score (p=0.017): the proportion of the effect of abuse on Ekman test score was 48%.

In subjects with SKZ, FER seems to be less impaired in abusers than non-abusers. We also showed an important role of thoughts and behavioral disorganization as a mediator between SKZ+SUD and FER.

frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is marked by progressive changes in behavior, personality, variable degrees of language impairment and preservation in other cognitive domains.

neuropsychological assessments must be more attentive performed, as FTD is the third cause of neurodegenerative dementia, in younger ages, being often misdiagnosed.

During one year we followed up every 3 months, 4 women, mean age 53.5 years admitted in Psychiatry Clinic. They all presented for depressive symptoms, started for about 4 years before, for which a series of antidepressants were used without any clinical improvement. Clinical, psychiatric and psychological evaluations were performed every 3 months, showing slowed verbal rhythm, difficulties in expressing themselves and finding right words, repetitive speech, lack of spontaneity and initiative. No perceptual disturbances or memory impairment were found. Systematically neurologic examination was normal except for bradykinesia and bradypsychia. MRI showed evidence of frontal and temporal involvement.

According to DSM 5, criteria for probable neurocognitive frontotemporal disorder were fulfilled, as there were a prominent decline in language ability, in the form of speech production with relative sparing of learning and memory.

Because of the nature of the symptoms and the fact that a patient is often 'too young' for dementia to be considered, FTD is often initially misdiagnosed. Especially when present in midlife, it can be a significant clinical challenge to distinguish it from primary psychiatric disorders like major depression, bipolar illness or even late-onset schizophrenia. A correct diagnosis may help us improve patient's quality of life and social restoration.

Pharmacologic management of psychosis related to parkinson’s disease (PD) generally reflects treatment of psychosis in other illnesses and primarily involves use of dopamine antagonists. However, the PD population can be challenging to manage in this respect as many antipsychotics have the potential to worsen PD motor symptoms by blocking dopamine D2 receptors.

To be up to date to recent therapies for better management strategy of psychosis symptoms in PD.

Literatures was reviewed using Medline database. The following keywords were used: Parkinson’s disease, psychosis, treatment, pharmacologic.

All'typical” antipsychotics and some 'atypical” antipsychotics are likely to aggravate parkinsonism, and should be avoided, specifically with use of risperidone . LAripiprazole and olanzapine were also recently evaluated and resulted in worsening of parkinsonism, and are not recommended for us in PD psychosis .

The results of clozapine have been positive in reducing psychosis without worsening of PD motor symptoms. The results of studies on quetiapine have been mixed with respect to efficacy, although in clinical practice is more widely used owing to ease of use. Pimavanserin, a serotonin 2A receptor inverse agonist, has also been examined as a treatment for PD-related psychosis.

There are no PD-specific pharmacologic therapies available, and in many areas there are few studies that strongly support the use of any particular therapy. Elimination of exacerbating factors and simplification of drug regimens are the first and most important steps in improvement of such symptoms.

The insight in the ethiopathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease(AD) suggests a slowly developing neurodegenerative process that starts 10 to 20 years before the clinical manifestation. Preventing or slowing the process of neuronal damage would be the state of the art in neuroscience, but the fist step is to identify individuals at risk, diagnose AD in the preclinical stage, develop preventive strategies and start treatment in the early disease course.

Developing a model for estimating a predictive risk score for AD in individuals with family history for AD and .

A battery of biochemical test for identifying LPL deficiency, serological biomarkers (alfa 2 macroglobulin, homocystein, complement factor H, interleukin-6), APO E genotyping and neuropsychological tests (Mini Mental State Examination-MMSE, Clinical Dementia Rating, and the novel Syndrome Kurz test) are performed in 50 individuals with family history for AD.

The early stage ongoing research that our team is performing, gives optimistic insight in the first results by combining the presence of the examined serological biomarkers, the neuropsychological tests results and ApoE ɛ4 genotype, we estimate the risk score for developing AD.

Till now a list of potential blood biomarkers has been suggested but none of them has shown to be sensitive, nor specific in accurate preclinical AD diagnosing. We believe that by combing these tests, a risk score for individuals with family history of AD would be estimated, so that a prospective approach and preventive strategies could be developed.

Limited research has examined the early neuropsychological and neurobiological changes associated with comorbid affective disorders and alcohol dependence.

To investigate the cognitive and volumetric changes in individuals diagnosed with affective disorders with or without comorbid alcohol dependence.

Young adults (n = 21) who were undergoing medically-managed inpatient alcohol detoxification with comorbid affective disorders were neuropsychologically assessed 4-weeks following hospital discharge, and additionally underwent MRI brain scans during admission and 4-weeks following discharge. An affective disorders-only group (n = 21) with an equal distribution of anxiety and mood disorders was recruited through a youth mental health clinic.

Compared to affective disorders only (M = 31.8 ± 4.4 years old), individuals with affective disorders and alcohol dependence (M = 33.9 ± 6.3 years old; M = 21.1 ± 9.2 standard drinks/day) exhibited worse sustained attention and visual memory functioning. There was a highly significant association between drinking levels since detoxification and total brain volume change, such that resumption of heavy drinking attenuated brain volume gains associated with short-term abstinence (r = -0.87, p < 0.001).

In young adults with affective disorders, comorbid alcohol dependence is associated with more pronounced cognitive dysfunction, suggesting that these deficits are most relevant for cognitive remediation interventions. Crucially, abstinence or reduced drinking was associated with brain volume gains, whereas resumption of heavy drinking was associated with brain volume reductions, suggesting that medically-managed alcohol detoxification may, at least, partially reverse the neurobiological changes associated with prolonged alcohol dependence in young adults.

Languageproduction and comprehension disorders are frequent in dementia. Language comprehensionat the single word level (i.e. in picture-word matching task) can be in mildly cognitively impaired patientspreserved, so clinically the language processes seem to be normal, but more comprehensivelanguage testing (i.e. at sentence level) can reveal substantial impairments even inpatients with mild dementia.

To detect the language deficits inpatients with MCI and dementia and to determine the relationship between thesedeficits and the severity of cognitive disturbances.

In the sample of 72 cognitively declined patientsof Department of psychiatry of University Hospital in Bratislava, Slovakia weevaluated severity of cognitive impairment by MMSE and MoCA instruments. Weused our own sentence comprehension test, designed for Slovak speakingindividuals.

Normal performance in sentence comprehensiontest we registered in 5 from 7 patients with MCI, but only in 2 patients from29 with mild, 2 patients from 32 with moderate and no patient from 4 withsevere dementia.

Testing of language functions inpatients with dementia only at the single word level (what is typical inroutine clinical practice) doesn´t capture real communication disturbances. Atleast in patients with MCI and mild dementia is very useful to carry out moredetailed language testing (including items at sentence level), which can revealthe onset of language disturbances. Languagespecific test should be used to discover comprehension deficits at early stageof dementia.

The success of orientation is influenced not only by spatial abilities but also by spatial orientation strategies. We measured the efficiency of spatial memory with traditional objetive spatial exercises.

We focused on the relation between spatial abilities, strategies and security. We compared the learning time in CGA and the exploration strategies with spatial memory, as well as with the egocentric and allocentric dominant strategies in Lawton navigation strategy questionnaire.

We searched for egocentric and allocentric spatial navigation strategies which influence on the information processing and agoraphobic fears.

Computer Generated Arena (CGA), which simulates the spatial situation of Morris Water Maze (MWM). Corsi Block Task (Corsi, 1972), Block Design (Kohs, 1923), Lawton Navigation Strategy Questionnaire (Lawton, 1996).

Participants: 77 university students, 54 women and 23 men, average age 22,4 years.

The variable of the learning in CGA, in the Block Design and in the Corsi Block strongly correlated with each other. The spatial construction ability strongly correlated with the allocentric strategies, and the spatial security with the spatial memory. With linear regression in CGA 10th trial, the more complex orientation strategies explain the time of finding the target. The strategy of wayfinding had a strong explanation power too. By females the performance is more sensitive to anxiety temperament and agoraphobic level.

Spatial learning was influenced not only by memory but also by learning strategies. The secure object relations correlated with the use of more developed allocentric strategies.

Interpersonal violence is a major cause of mortality, and morbidity, constituting a serious social concern. The underlying causes of human aggression and violence are certainly multifactorial, although patients with a variety of psychiatric disorders including, but not limited to, personality disorders are at increased risk for developing aggression. It is thus important to understand the neurobiology of aggression, particularly maladaptive aggression.

Better understand the neurobiology of aggression, particularly pathological forms of impulsive aggression, by discussing the circuitry, both cortical and subcortical, as well as the role of neuromodulators.

Understand the neurobiology of aggression, particularly maladaptative aggression.

Literature review on the subject, PubMed was searched using the search terms neurobiology, neuroimaging, violence, aggression.

The failure of 'top-down' control systems in the pre-frontal cortex to modulate aggressive acts that are triggered by anger provoking stimuli appears to play an important role. An imbalance between prefrontal regulatory influences and hyper-responsivity of the amygdala and other limbic regions involved in affective evaluation are implicated.

Insufficient serotonergic facilitation of 'top-down' control, excessive catecholaminergic stimulation, and sub-cortical imbalances of glutamatergic/gabaminergic systems as well as pathology in neuropeptide systems involved in the regulation of affiliative behavior may contribute to abnormalities in this circuitry.

Considerable progress is being made in understanding the neurobiological bases of human adaptive and maladaptive aggression. Thus, the advances already made can contribute meaningfully to a rational assessment and treatment of individuals with pathological aggression and a predisposition to violence.

TBI is a major cause of disability. Depression is one of the major squeal of TBI in both inpatient and outpatient populations. Depression is associated with numerous negative outcome, thus affecting QOL adversely in these patients. Addressing depression in treatment regimen of TBI may improve QOL of these patients.

Present study is designed to evaluate the role of sertraline in post TBI depression and its impact on QOL.

Eighty male patients with post TBI depression were included in study amongst the 250 male patients of mild to moderate TBI recruited for evaluation. Half of the patients were given sertraline 50 mg PO whereas other half served as control without sertraline treatment. Participants were assessed on GCS, PHQ-9 and WHOQQOL at regular interval till the end of 6 months.

Depression was found in 35.6% of total patients recruited. Most of the patients (63.1%)were below 35 years of age. Depression was more common in mild TBI cases than those with moderate TBI(53.7% v/s 46.25%,p=0.04).Left side brain injury (56.25%)with cerebral contusions was more commonly associated with depression(p=0.04). Patients in sertraline group responded well to treatment with significant improvement in mod symptoms(PHQ-9 score 14.88±3.603 v/s 5.33±2.98,p=0.04)). All the four domains of QOL improved significantly in sertraline group than the control group with sertraline treatment.

Management of TBI must focus on treatment of associated mood symptoms which is likely to be associated with poor QOL . Sertraline is effective in treatment of depression with significant improvement in QOL in TBI patients.

Chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a disease that afflicts more than 170 million people worldwide and is a major cause of liver disease, cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma. Standard pharmacologic treatment for HCV infection is the antiviral combination of pe-gylated interferon (IFN) and ribavirin (RBV). Several psychiatric side effects such as depression, anxiety and even psychosis and cognitive impairment were reported.

To review the neuropsychiatric side effects of interferon treatment of HCV infection though the study of a case report.

We present a case of a 45-years-old without personal or familiar psychiatric history, admitted in our inpatient unit with psychotic symptoms during the last 2 weeks, consisting of paranoid delusions and aggressive and bizarre behavior. The patient had history of HCV and HIV infection and had initiated treatment with pegylated IFN alpha e RBV in the prior 6 months. Neuroimaging and laboratory tests were done without significant alterations. He was treated with Olanzapine 15 mg od with improvement of the psychotic symptoms and without important side effects. At the time of hospital discharge, psychotic symptoms had almost disappeared and no behavioral disorder was observed.

IFN-associated psychiatric disorders appear to be much more common than previously thought. The increased in pro-inflammatory cytokines in certain psychiatric disorders was widely reported. We believe that the inflammatory setting may be considered as an important further piece in the puzzle in a genetic-environmental diathesis model of the psychiatric diseases.