ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES: Neurocognitive dysfunction has been established in several studies in children with beta-thalassemia major (TM). However, despite its wide occurrence in populations across the Arabian Peninsula, scant attention has been paid to shedding light on neuropsychological functioning among adults with TM. This study aimed to examine the level of neuropsychological functioning among Omani adults with TM regularly followed-up at a tertiary care hospital in Oman. A related aim was to examine the factors associated with neuropsychological performance. METHODS: Standard neuropsychological tests were used to measure attention and concentration, learning and remembering, verbal fluency, and executive functioning. Participants were also gauged on indices of intellectual ability and affective range. As normative data for neuropsychological functioning in Oman is scarce, healthy age- and sex-matched controls underwent the same testing procedure. The log-linear model was used to identify factors associated with TM patients on demographic and neuropsychological performance. RESULTS: This study recruited 28 adult patients with TM (age 30.0±6.5) and 39 healthy controls (age 29.2±6.1). Findings suggested that having a diagnosis of TM was significantly associated with symptoms of depression (p < 0.001) and anxiety (p < 0.001), indices of executive functioning (verbal fluency) (p =0.003), working memory (digit span) (p < 0.001), and verbal and auditory attention scores (California Verbal Learning, p = 0.002). CONCLUSIONS: The data appears to suggest that short-term memory capacity, verbal fluency, and verbal and auditory attention may be impaired in TM compared to controls. Studies on a larger cohort are therefore warranted.
ABSTRACT
Vitamin D deficiency has been estimated to affect roughly 30% to 50% of the global population and thus labeled as a silent pandemic. In addition to its role in skeletal and calcium homeostasis, vitamin D has been implicated in brain functioning across both preclinical research and human populations studies. These findings have also been extended to various neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric conditions. Furthermore, these individuals tend to display diminishing cognition symptoms. In this regard, this review is dedicated to address the relationship between vitamin D and dementia, mood disorders, and the various neuropsychological disorders of psychosis. The review takes both preclinical and clinical studies into consideration. While there are many literature suggesting the critical role of vitamins in cognition on the above said diseases, it is still premature to unequivocally postulate the role of vitamin D on cognitive symptoms. Further research is necessary to establish this association, including the need to increase the ecological validity of animal models, delineating the core cognitive symptoms associated with the disorders, and establishing the optimal source of vitamin D consumption.
