Psychophysiological Characteristics of Children with Dyslexia

Dyslexia is a specific learning disorder that involves difficulty reading due to decoding problems for letters and words. Statistics shows that 5-10% of the general population has dyslexia. The aetiology of reading disorder supposes some biological causes and morphological markers useful in the classification and early identification of the problem.The aim of this article is to find appropriate parameters, which will be useful for early diagnosis and finding the right modalities for treatment.Our findings about QEEG characteristics are not conclusive. However, slowing of brain activity in dyslexic children appeared to be confirmed. These findings lead to the possible hypothesis of delay in neurological development of these children. Significant theta/beta ratio suggest possible comorbidity with ADHD.Further research with more children included is proposed

Cost-effectiveness of implementing a digital psychosocial intervention for patients with psychotic spectrum disorders in low- and middle-income countries in Southeast Europe: Economic evaluation alongside a cluster randomised trial

BACKGROUND: DIALOG+ is a digital psychosocial intervention aimed at making routine meetings between patients and clinicians therapeutically effective. This study aimed to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of implementing DIALOG+ treatment for patients with psychotic disorders in five low- and middle-income countries in Southeast Europe alongside a cluster randomised trial. METHODS: Resource use and quality of life data were collected alongside the multi-country cluster randomised trial of 468 participants with psychotic disorders. Due to COVID-19 interruptions of the trial’s original 12-month intervention period, adjusted costs and quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) were estimated at the participant level using a mixed-effects model over the first 6 months only. We estimated the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) with uncertainty presented using a cost-effectiveness plane and a cost-effectiveness acceptability curve. Seven sensitivity analyses were conducted to check the robustness of the findings. RESULTS: The average cost of delivering DIALOG+ was €91.11 per participant. DIALOG+ was associated with an incremental health gain of 0.0032 QALYs (95% CI –0.0015, 0.0079), incremental costs of €84.17 (95% CI –8.18, 176.52), and an estimated ICER of €26,347.61. The probability of DIALOG+ being cost-effective against three times the weighted gross domestic product (GDP) per capita for the five participating countries was 18.9%. CONCLUSION: Evidence from the cost-effectiveness analyses in this study suggested that DIALOG+ involved relatively low costs. However, it is not likely to be cost-effective in the five participating countries compared with standard care against a willingness-to-pay threshold of three times the weighted GDP per capita per QALY gained

Evidence-based psychotherapeutic interventions for young people with mood disorders: a systematic review

INTRODUCTION: Mood disorders are amongst the most common groups of mental disorders in young people (YP). Depression may affect 8-20% of all YP and may result in a cascade of negative developmental outcomes predicting long-term morbidity and poor functioning. In view of this, the COST action ‘European Network of Individualized Psychotherapy Treatment of Young People with Mental Disorders’ (TREATme) was set up to help improve mental health services in YP.OBJECTIVES: One of the overarching aims of TREATme is to carry out a systematic review to assess for the effectiveness of psychotherapeutic interventions in YP. In this study, we present results from the systematic review of treatment effectiveness of youth interventions for mood disorders.[excerpt]peer-reviewe

Updated European Consensus Statement on diagnosis and treatment of adult ADHD

Background Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is among the most common psychiatric disorders of childhood that often persists into adulthood and old age. Yet ADHD is currently underdiagnosed and undertreated in many European countries, leading to chronicity of symptoms and impairment, due to lack of, or ineffective treatment, and higher costs of illness. Methods The European Network Adult ADHD and the Section for Neurodevelopmental Disorders Across the Lifespan (NDAL) of the European Psychiatric Association (EPA), aim to increase awareness and knowledge of adult ADHD in and outside Europe. This Updated European Consensus Statement aims to support clinicians with research evidence and clinical experience from 63 experts of European and other countries in which ADHD in adults is recognized and treated. Results Besides reviewing the latest research on prevalence, persistence, genetics and neurobiology of ADHD, three major questions are addressed: (1) What is the clinical picture of ADHD in adults? (2) How should ADHD be properly diagnosed in adults? (3) How should adult ADHDbe effectively treated? Conclusions ADHD often presents as a lifelong impairing condition. The stigma surrounding ADHD, mainly due to lack of knowledge, increases the suffering of patients. Education on the lifespan perspective, diagnostic assessment, and treatment of ADHD must increase for students of general and mental health, and for psychiatry professionals. Instruments for screening and diagnosis of ADHD in adults are available, as are effective evidence-based treatments for ADHD and its negative outcomes. More research is needed on gender differences, and in older adults with ADHD. (c) 2018 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Masson SAS.Peer reviewe

Assessment of the brain rate parameter in three protocol-dependant groups of epileptic patients.

Aim: It has been shown that the EEG spectrum gravity (i.e. spectrum weighted frequency named as "brain rate") is related to the level of consciousness. On the other hand, the influence of some anti-epileptic drugs over the background EEG activity, thus affecting the level of mental arousal, is also well documented. The aim of this study is to assess the brain rate parameter in three protocol dependant groups of epileptic patients, in order to estimate whether it can be used as an indicator of the therapeutic efficacy of the anti-epileptic treatment. Methods: Thirty patients, selected over a period of 3 years (2006-2009) and diagnosed with epilepsy were divided in 3 equal groups. The first group of patients (6M/4F) were free from anti-epileptic medications; the second group (4M/6F) were treated with Lamotrigine only, whereas the third group (3M/7F) received only Carbamazepine. The EEG data was obtained under the same conditions and electrodes were applied according to International 10/20 system using standard bipolar montage. For each patient, 40 artefact-free baseline EEG epochs (4 seconds each during eyes closed) were selected for further analysis. The sampling rate was 256 Hz. Low-cut frequency was 0.53 Hz, whereas high-cut was 30 Hz. Results: Visual analysis of the raw EEG data was performed before obtaining the results. The final assessment resulted in power spectra values, calculated within 6 frequency bands: delta (1 - 4 Hz), theta (4 - 8 Hz), alpha (8 - 12 Hz), SMR (12.00 Hz - 16 Hz), beta1 (16 - 20 Hz) and beta2 (20 - 24 Hz) in 14 equivalent locations, based on which the brain rate values were calculated. Conclusion: The results have shown that the conscious relaxation is much greater in the patients free from medication, while the level of consciousness is slightly decreased in the patients treated with Carbamazepine and increased in the group under Lamotrigine treatment

Some specific QEEG applications related to neurocognitive dysfunctions.

Quantitative EEG assessment (QEEG) is a neuroinformatic tool, implying the following main steps: recording of multichannel EEG, signal processing and extraction of features such as mean spectral amplitude or power for multiple frequency bands and comparison of subject’s data with a normative database corrected for time-of-day variations. To this date, QEEG has proved to be useful additional tool in the estimation and treatment of many disorders with underlying organic pathology. However, the full QEEG capacity for successful estimation of neurocognitive dysfunctions is still poorly investigated. This is an attempt to shed light over this problem by giving summary of three studies, each of which exploring QEEG patterns in various conditions that are often associated with cognitive dysfunctions. The aim of the first study was to investigate the alpha rhythm parameters (8 - 12 Hz) in cystic fibrosis (CF) patients in order to distinguish eventual features that differ from healthy individuals. The second study deals with the existence of different qEEG subtypes in ADHD children associated with specific neurocognitive profiles. The third study is a meta-analysis of papers, published over period of 13 years across 3 continents, which were examining the potential influence of extremely low frequency (ELF) electromagnetic field (EMF) components over human EEG patterns which are in the same range of frequencies. Finally, a comparative QEEG investigation of neurocognitive parameters in healthy population will be presented, with introduction of the brain-rate parameter as an integral brain state indicato

Analysis of QEEG spectrum-weighted frequency (brain-rate) for visual and emotional CPT

The main idea of this work is to present the differences in ERP’s gained with ECPT and VCPT between normal and ADHD adults. The sample consisted of 30-40 ADHD adults and controls. All subjects went through structured interview and filled in the ADHD questionnaires. Neuropsychological testing for attention with the Amsterdam Neuropsychological Testing (ANT) and for short term memory with Cog Med Test (CTT) was done. The baseline activity status of EEG in eyes closed and eyes opened conditions was assessed. After that the Psytask consisted of ECPT and VCPT was administered. Some aspects of theoretical background and the attained and observed differences between ECPT and VCPT ERP’s components in normal and ADHD adults will be discussed

Behavioral parameters for ADHD and normal adults during face recognition and identification of facial emotions.

The objective of this study was to comp are the data from Amsterdam Neuropsychological Test (ANT) and Emotional Continuous Performance Test (ECPT) between ADHD and normal adults. 57 ADHD (mean age = 37.4; SD = 9.29) and 46 healthy (mean age = 25.6; SD = 7.90) subjects were included in the study. ANT was recorded during 10 tasks, whereby only two tasks we re analyzed: Face Recognition (FR) and Identification of Facial Emotions (IFE). The first task consisted of three parts (frontal, profile and upside-down faces) recognizing the unfamiliar faces with varied mapping condition. The second task comprised the re cognition of facial expressions: happy, sad, angry and feared faces. ECPT in troduced by Meier, Müller & Kropotov, was given as a part of stimuli presentation protocol for evoked potentials and was recorded simultaneously with the 19 channel EEG. The ADHD group made more errors, showed a greater response time and larger variability of reaction time than the control group. Accordingly, this group showed more difficulties of dealing with complexity of face and facial expression recognition. In addition, we can say that the decoding of complex visual information, as the decoding of emotional states, is difficult, since the different feelings also have an influence on the visual decoding and decision-making process

Evidence-based psychotherapeutic interventions for young people with mental disorders : a systematic review

INTRODUCTION: Young People (YP) with mental disorders have the highest rates of long-term morbidity and mortality. Mental disorders increase markably in young adulthood: 75% of mental disorders emerge before the age of 25 years but less than half of YP receive appropriate treatment. Recognizing this public health concern, the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) funded the “European Network of Individualized Psychotherapy Treatment of Young People with Mental Disorders” (TREATme).OBJECTIVES: To conduct systematic literature reviews elucidating the efficacy of psychotherapeutic interventions for YP diagnosed with mental disorders.[excerpt]peer-reviewe