Headache is associated with lower alcohol consumption among medical students

The aim of this study was to investigate the association between headache and alcohol consumption among medical students. 480 medical students were submitted to a questionnaire about headaches and drinking alcohol. Headache was assessed by ID-Migraine and functional disability was evaluated with MIDAS. The evaluation of alcohol consumption was assessed with Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT). There was significantly lower proportion of students with drinking problem among students with headache. This occurred both among students classified as having migraine and among those who had non-migrainous headache. There was not a correlation between functional disability of headache and AUDIT score. Our data suggest that having headache leads to a reduction in alcohol consumption among medical students regardless the degree of headache functional impact

Cognitive impairment in clinically isolated syndrome: a systematic review

Abstract The pattern of cognitive abnormalities in multiple sclerosis (MS) has been extensively studied and well characterized. However, little is known about the cognitive involvement in patients with the clinically isolated syndrome (CIS ). Objectives: To perform a systematic review of the results of the studies on cognitive dysfunction in CIS patients . Methods: Cochrane, Lilacs, PubMed/Medline and SciELO databases were searched for studies involving patients with clinically isolated syndrome submitted to neuropsychological evaluation. Results: Seven studies fulfilled the selection criteria adopted in this review. The pattern of cognitive abnormalities in CIS resembles that found in patients with MS and is characterized by attention deficit, reduced information processing speed and impaired working memory and executive functions. The frequency of cognitive impairment in CIS seems to be lower than in MS. Conclusions: Cognition should be evaluated in patients with CIS. Future studies are required to evaluate the impact of cognitive abnormalities and to correlate them with axonal damage findings in patients with CIS

Cognitive impairment in patients with clinically isolated syndrome

ABSTRACT Cognitive abnormalities have been extensively studied in Multiple Sclerosis (MS). However, little is known about the cognitive involvement in patients with Clinically Isolated Syndrome (CIS). Objective: This study aimed to investigate cognitive impairment in patients with CIS compared with healthy subjects. Methods: 18 CIS patients and 18 controls were subjected to the Wechsler memory scale, Rey Auditory Verbal Learning, Rey Complex Figure, Paced Auditory Serial Addition, Digit Span, verbal fluency, Stroop color card test, D2, and Digit Symbol tests. Results: CIS patients had significantly worse performance on the Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test (PASAT) 2 seconds (P=0.009) and on verbal fluency tests (P=0.0038) than controls. Conclusion: CIS patients had worse cognitive performance than controls on neuropsychological tests evaluating executive functioning

Drinking and driving: a decrease in executive frontal functions in young drivers with high blood alcohol concentration

This study correlated the executive frontal functions with blood alcohol concentration (BAC) in night drivers in a Brazilian city. of 592 drivers randomly recruited between December 17, 2005 and May 5, 2006, during nighttime hours on main streets or avenues with intense vehicle traffic in Vitoria, Brazil, 444 had the BAC determined by a portable digital breath alcohol analyzer and 389 were submitted to a frontal function examination by a frontal assessment battery (FAB). A high percentage (24.4%) of drivers presented alcohol in their blood. Most of these drivers were male (82%), and nearly half (43.7%) were young adults (aged between 20 and 30 years). the results showed an inverse relationship between the BAC and FAB total scores, with a higher BAC corresponding to a smaller FAB total score, delineating a progressive decrease in frontal function with increasing concentrations of alcohol. the most intriguing result was that alcohol-induced impairment on frontal executive function was particularly important in young adults, and more specifically in the motor programming subset of FAB, an executive function highly involved in driving skills. Considering the worldwide evidence of the high-risk involvement of youth in automobile crashes, the effects of alcohol in young adults need to be more thoroughly examined by cognitive studies, and more direct preventive solutions need to be taken focusing on this age range. (C) 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.Univ Fed Espirito Santo, Hlth Sci Ctr, Dept Physiol Sci, Lab Neuropsychopharmacol, BR-29042755 Vitoria, ES, BrazilUniversidade Federal de São Paulo UNIFESP, Dept Psiquiatria, São Paulo, BrazilUniversidade Federal de São Paulo UNIFESP, Dept Psiquiatria, São Paulo, BrazilWeb of Scienc

Anxiety and depressive symptoms in clinically isolated syndrome and multiple sclerosis

Depression and anxiety have been reported in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) and in patients with clinically isolated syndrome (CIS). However, the precise mechanisms that lead to depressive and anxiety symptoms in these patients are still unclear. In this study we evaluated with the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) patients with MS and CIS and compared them to controls. We also correlated BDI and BAI scores with clinical parameters. Kruskall-Wallis followed by Dunn's Multiple Comparison Test, Chi-square and Spearman test were used. Patients with MS had higher depressive and anxiety scores than controls. The BDI and BAI scores of patients with CIS were not significantly different from controls. There was a positive correlation between BDI, BAI and EDSS. Our results corroborate the view that MS patients have higher depression and anxiety levels than control subjects. Anxiety and depressive symptoms also seem to progress according to the severity of the disease