FALL-RELATED ACTIVITIES OF DAILY LIVING AND BEHAVIOUR DISTURBANCES IN DEMENTIA.

The purpose of this study is to clarify the activities of daily living and behaviour disturbances related to inpatients and outpatients with dementia experiencing falls. Patients diagnosed with dementia belonging to 18 facilities which consented to the study were subjected. The study involved "whether or not the patient has fallen in the past 12 months", "Barthel Index (B.I)", and "Dementia Behaviour Disturbance Scale (DBD)" and other data from 325 people in 18 facilities who had been diagnosed with dementia. The ratio of subjects who had fallen to those who had not was 113:212. The results of multiple logistic regression analysis showed that the study items related to falls including the DBD item of "making unwarranted accusations" had an OR = 1.445, 95% CI (1.133-1.843), the DBD item of "refusing to eat" had an OR = 0.699, 95% CI (0.521- 0.938), the B.I item of "feeding" had OR = 1.115, 95% CI (1.032-1.204) and the B.I item of "bathing" had OR = 0.782, 95% CI (0.671-0.912). Integral characteristics of dementia patients who have fallen are assumed to be making unwarranted accusations, having a low rate of refusing to eat, being able to eat alone and requiring attention when bathing.

Changes in Event-Related Desynchronization and Synchronization during the Auditory Oddball Task in Schizophrenia Patients.

OBJECTIVE: We studied differences in the spatiotemporal dynamics of cortical oscillation across brain regions of patients with schizophrenia and normal subjects during the auditory oddball task using magnetoencephalography (MEG) and electroencephalography (EEG). METHODS: Ten right-handed male schizophrenia patients were studied. We used a newly developed adaptive spatial filtering algorithm optimized for robust source time-frequency reconstruction of MEG and EEG data, and obtained consecutive images in functional maps of event-related desynchronization (ERD) and synchronization (ERS) in theta, lower alpha (8-10 Hz), upper alpha (10-13 Hz), and beta bands. RESULTS: Beta ERD power at 750-1000 ms in patients was significantly increased in large right upper temporal and parietal regions and small upper portions of bilateral dorsal frontal and dorsal-medial parietal regions. Theta ERS power in schizophrenic patients during the oddball task was significantly increased in the left temporal pole at 250-500 ms, and was significantly increased in dorsal, medial frontal, and anterior portions of the anterior cingulate cortex in both hemispheres, and the left portion of lateral temporal regions at 500-750 ms, compared to the control group (family-wise error correction p<0.05). Lower alpha ERS power was significantly decreased in the right occipital region at 500-750 ms and in the right midline parietal and bilateral occipital regions at 750-1000 ms. Upper alpha ERS power was significantly decreased in right midline parietal and left occipital regions at 750-1000 ms. CONCLUSIONS: ERD/ERS changes were noted in the left temporal pole and midline frontal and anterior cingulate cortex in theta ERS, occipital lobe in alpha ERS, and right temporal-frontal-parietal, midline frontal, and anterior cingulate cortex in beta ERD. These findings may reflect disturbances in interaction among active large neuronal groups and their communication with each other that may be related to abnormal cognitive and psychopathological function. SIGNIFICANCE: Study of ERD and ERS by time-frequency analyses using MEG is useful to clarify data processing dysfunction in schizophrenia.