Personality Related to Quality-of-Life Improvement After Deep Brain Stimulation in Parkinson's Disease (PSYCHO-STIM II).

BACKGROUND: Deep brain stimulation of the sub-thalamic nucleus (DBS-STN) reduces symptoms in Parkinson's disease (PD) patients with motor fluctuations. However, some patients may not feel ameliorated afterwards, despite an objective motor improvement. It is thus important to find new predictors of patients' quality of life (QoL) amelioration after DBS-STN. We hypothesized that personality dimensions might affect QoL after DBS-STN. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate associations between personality dimensions and QoL improvement one year after DBS-STN. METHODS: DBS-STN-PD patients (n = 303) having answered the "Temperament and Character Inventory" (TCI) before surgery and the PDQ-39 before and one year after surgery were included, from the cohort study PREDI-STIM. Linear regression models were used to evaluate associations between TCI dimensions and change in PDQ-39 scores after DBS-STN. RESULTS: Novelty Seeking and Cooperativeness scores before surgery were positively associated with PDQ-39 scores improvement after DBS-STN (FDR-adjusted p < 0.01). Moreover, paradoxically unimproved patients with deterioration of their PDQ-39 scores after DBS-STN despite improvement of their MDS-UPDRS-IV scores had lower Cooperativeness scores, while paradoxically improved patients with amelioration of their PDQ-39 scores despite deterioration of their MDS-UPDRS-IV scores had higher Reward Dependence scores. CONCLUSION: Some presurgical personality dimensions were significantly associated with QoL amelioration and discrepancy between motor state and QoL changes after DBS-STN in PD. Educational programs before DBS-STN should take in account patient personality dimensions to better deal with their expectations.

Personality Dimensions Are Associated with Quality of Life in Fluctuating Parkinson's Disease Patients (PSYCHO-STIM).

BACKGROUND: Parkinson's disease (PD) negatively affects patients' Quality of Life (QoL) which depends on both objective criteria such as physical health and subjective ones such as worries and norms according to personal believes. Therefore, QoL could be also associated to personality dimensions in chronic neurological diseases such as PD. OBJECTIVE: Our objective was thus to study the potential association between personality dimensions and QoL in PD patients with motor fluctuations before Deep Brain Stimulation of the Sub-Thalamic Nucleus (DBS-STN). METHODS: Data were obtained from the French multicentric cohort study Predi-Stim. All PD patients awaiting DBS-STN and responding to the inclusion criteria at the time of the study were included. All participants answered the "Temperament and Character Inventory" (TCI) and the PDQ-39 before surgery. Analyses were made using adjusted univariate generalized linear regression models to evaluate a potential association between TCI dimensions and PDQ-39 scores. RESULTS: Three hundred thirty-three consecutive patients were included. The temperament Harm Avoidance was negatively associated with QoL (p = 1e-4, R2= 0.33), whereas the character Self-Directedness was positively associated with mental component of QoL (p = 2e-4, R2= 0.33) in PD patients with motor fluctuations awaiting DBS-STN. CONCLUSIONS: PD patients with motor fluctuations, with lower Harm Avoidance and higher Self-Directedness scores have the best QoL mainly at an emotional and social level. Therapeutic education of these PD patients focusing on their personal resources may thus be important to improve their well-being.

Insights from the Impact of Meal Composition on Glucose Profile Towards Post-bariatric Hypoglycemia Management.

BACKGROUND/AIM: The need to improve post-bariatric hypoglycemia (PBH) diagnosis and clinical management is well recognized. Our aim was to evaluate the influence of meal nutritional composition on interstitial fluid glucose (IFG) profiles and symptom profile after Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB). METHODS: Seventeen subjects previously submitted to RYGB were allocated into two groups of symptomatic (n = 9) or control individuals (n = 8), according to spontaneous report of symptoms suggestive of hypoglycemia. Subjects were provided with a food and symptom diary (FSD) to record dietary intake and symptoms experienced, while using a flash glucose monitoring (FGM) system for 14 days. RESULTS: Postprandial symptom reports occurred in 70.5% of subjects (88.9% vs 50.0%, p = 0.0790, symptomatic vs control), although symptoms with concurrent IFG < 54 mg/dL and within 54 to 69 mg/dL were only observed in 31.9% and 4.8% of the events in the symptomatic vs control group, respectively (p = 0.0110). Daily glucose profiles, total energy, and macronutrients intake were not significantly different between the groups. However, nutritional composition of meals preceding reported symptoms had lower protein (3.2 g ± 1.0 g vs 7.7 g ± 0.5 g, p = 0.0286) or higher sugar (11.6 g ± 2.4 g vs 4.3 g ± 0.9 g, p = 0.0333) content. CONCLUSIONS: Postprandial symptoms are often in patients after RYGB. Concurrent hypoglycemia only occurs in up to a third of the symptomatic episodes being more frequent in patients that spontaneously reported complaints. Hypoglycemia is more likely to be triggered by meals with a low protein or high sugar content. These findings highlight the putative role of meal composition in eliciting PBH and reinforce the need to refine nutritional intervention.

Papel da memantina no tratamento das perturbações da ansiedade: uma revisão baseada na evidência / The role of memantine in anxiety disorders: an evidence-based review

RESUMO Objetivo Avaliar a eficácia da memantina no tratamento das perturbações da ansiedade. Métodos Foi realizada uma revisão sistemática na Medline, outras bases de dados baseadas na evidência e Índex das Revistas Médicas Portuguesas, nos últimos 10 anos, em inglês, espanhol e português, utilizando os seguintes termos “MESH memantine”, “treatment” e “anxiety disorders”. Para avaliar a qualidade dos estudos e a força de recomendação, foi utilizada a escala de Strength of Recommendation Taxonomy da American Family Physician. Resultados Obtiveram-se 131 artigos, dos quais seis cumpriam os critérios de inclusão: dois ensaios clínicos aleatorizados e controlados (ECAC), uma revisão sistemática (RS), uma norma de orientação clínica (NOC) e dois ensaios clínicos não controlados (ECNC). A NOC não recomenda o uso de memantina no tratamento da perturbação generalizada da ansiedade (PGA) (SOR C), mas recomenda o uso da memantina como tratamento adjuvante de segunda linha na perturbação obsessivo-compulsiva (POC) e como terceira linha na perturbação do estresse pós-traumático (SORT C). Os dois ECAC sugerem que o tratamento adjuvante com memantina melhorou a sintomatologia dos pacientes com POC severa. A RS revelou que o uso da memantina tem alguns benefícios na diminuição dos sintomas da POC. Os dois ECNC sugerem que a memantina pode ser eficaz como tratamento adjuvante em pacientes sintomáticos apesar de tratamento adequado com antidepressivos convencionais. Conclusão A evidência atual sugere que o uso de memantina como adjuvante no tratamento da POC parece ser eficaz (SORT B). O uso de memantina no tratamento da PGA não é recomendado (SORT C).

ABSTRACT Objective Review the evidence on the efficacy of memantine in the treatment of the anxiety disorders. Methods A systematic review of articles published in the last ten years, in Portuguese, English and Spanish, was performed in Medline, other places of Evidence Medicine and Index of Portuguese Databases, using the following MESH terms: memantine, treatment and anxiety disorders. We used the Strength of Recommendation Taxonomy (SORT) scale of American Family Physician to assign levels of evidence and strength of recommendations. Results A total of 131 papers were identified, and after the application of inclusion criteria, 6 papers remained, including two randomized controlled trials (RCT), one clinical guideline (CG), two open clinical trials and one systematic review (SR). The CG does not recommend the use of memantine in the treatment of the generalized anxiety disorder (SORT C) but does recommend the use of memantine as second-line adjunctive therapy for obsessive compulsive disorder and as third-line therapy for post-traumatic stress (SORT C). The two RCT suggest that an add-on of memantine does improve the symptoms of patients suffering from severe obsessive compulsive disorder. The SR showed that the use of memantine had some benefit in relieving obsessive compulsive disorder symptoms. The two other studies showed memantine may be an effective augmentation therapy in patients with anxiety who remain symptomatic despite adequate treatment with conventional antidepressant anxiolytics. Conclusion The current available evidence suggests the benefit of memantine as an adjunctive therapy for the treatment for obsessive compulsive disorder (SORT B). Most studies does not show the benefit of the use of memantine for the treatment of generalized anxiety disorder (SORT C).