A Review of: “Overcoming Night Eating Syndrome”

Abstract

A Parent's Guide to Eating Disorders and Obesity, by M. M. Jablow. New York: Delta Books, 1992, 164 pages, $10.00 paperback.

Group Therapy for Eating Disorders, edited by Heather Harper-Giuffre &; K. Roy MacKenzie, Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Press, 1992, 353 pages, $43.00.

Preventing Childhood Eating Problems: A Practical, Positive Approach to Raising Children Free of Food and Weight Conflicts, by Jane R. Hirschmann &; Lela Zaphiropoulos. Carlsbad, CA: Gurze Books, 1993, 160 pages, $9.95.     

‘Mother of Sorrows’: Post-Partum Mental Disorder and the Law across Five Jurisdictions

Cases across the five common law jurisdictions of Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand featuring post-partum mental disorder include those where mothers have acted criminally in a psychotic state, but also many others where mothers have acted in the context of fragile mental health in combination with desperate social and economic circumstances. Mental health and legal professionals grapple in these cases with difficult determinations of rationality, intention, balance of mind and appropriate disposition. This article locates these cases within prevailing legal understandings of insanity and diminished responsibility, health sciences research on post-partum illness, and the social contexts within which early mothering occurs. It argues that post-partum mental disorder is treated in law with an ambivalent mix of compassion, dismissiveness and outrage. This incoherence with respect to the mentally disordered state of new mothers leaves women's actions and mental states open to severely restrictive interpretations of incapacity and the imposition of narrative authority by others.     

Is There a Syndrome of Tuberothalamic Artery Infarction? A Case Report and Critical Review

Short-term post-acute neuropsychological, neurological, and neuroradiological test results and a 16-month follow-up of a 65-year-old patient with a right hemisphere ischemic lesion in the tuberothalamic area of vascular supply are reported. During a 6-week period of examinations the originally left- but trained right-handed patient exhibited fluctuating neuropsychological disorders including aphasia, visuo-perceptive and visuoconstructive disorders, and memory and attention deficits. In the follow-up examination the patient exhibited no aphasia and significant improvements in most neuropsychological tasks. Based on three-dimensional reconstruction of MRI, lesion topography and involvement of thalamic nuclei were established. We discuss the neuropsychological and neurological symptoms of the present case against the background of the ‘syndrome of unilateral tuberothalamic artery territory infarction’ proposed by Bogousslavsky and coworkers (1986) and the neuropsychological literature on unilateral ischemic anterior/anterolateral thalamic infarction.     

Moyamoya Disease Associated with Graves’ Disease and Down Syndrome: A Case Report and Literature Review

BackgroundMoyamoya vessels are cerebral vasculopathies characterized by net-like collateral vessel formation at the cerebral basal area and stenosis of the terminal internal carotid artery, proximal middle cerebral artery, and anterior cerebral artery. A diagnosis of Moyamoya disease depends on the bilateral presence of Moyamoya vessels. Moyamoya disease associated with Graves' disease has rarely been reported to be a cause of ischemic events due to hyperthyroidism. However, there are extremely rare cases of Moyamoya disease with concurrent Graves' disease and Down syndrome. We aimed to report such a case, and to compare these cases’ clinical features, pathogenesis, and treatment effects to those of the cases of concurrent Moyamoya disease and Graves' disease alone.MethodsWe performed an English literature search using the PubMed database and the keywords Moyamoya, quasi-Moyamoya, Graves’ disease, thyrotoxicosis, Down syndrome, and trisomy 21.ResultsOnly five cases of Moyamoya disease with Graves' disease and Down syndrome have been reported, including our own. Four patients were female (80%), and all underwent antithyroid therapy and experienced ischemic episodes, including transient ischemic attacks. At the time of their vascular accident, two patients were in a thyrotoxic state; only our patient was in a euthyroid state. The mean age was 15.6 years (standard deviation: 6.1), which was younger than the mean age of 31.4 years (standard deviation: 13) in patients with Moyamoya disease and Graves' disease alone. Down syndrome is commonly associated with abnormal vascular networks due to increased endostatin concentrations or immunological abnormalities such as those that occur in Graves' disease. Graves' disease accelerates the progression of Moyamoya disease and ischemic attacks due to atherosclerosis, enhances sympathetic nervous system activity and immunological changes. As compared to Moyamoya disease patients, patients with concurrent Graves' disease only and Moyamoya disease patients with concurrent Graves' disease and Down syndrome may experience accelerated disease progression or more frequent ischemic attacks.ConclusionEarly imaging follow-ups and strict control of thyroid function are necessary in such cases; if ischemic attacks have already occurred, revascularization surgery may be effective.     

Ekbom Syndrome: A Delusional Condition of “Bugs in the Skin”

Entomologists estimate that more than 100,000 Americans suffer from “invisible bug” infestations, a condition known clinically as Ekbom syndrome (ES), although the psychiatric literature dubs the condition “rare.” This illustrates the reluctance of ES patients to seek mental health care, as they are convinced that their problem is bugs. In addition to suffering from the delusion that bugs are attacking their bodies, ES patients also experience visual and tactile hallucinations that they see and feel the bugs. ES patients exhibit a consistent complex of attributes and behaviors that can adversely affect their lives.     

Lemierre’s Syndrome presenting with neurological and pulmonary symptoms: Case report and review of the literature

Lemierre’s Syndrome (LS) is a potentially life-threatening condition, characterized by clinical or radiologic evidence of internal jugular vein thrombosis following an oropharyngeal infection, most commonly by Fusobacterium necrophorum. A high index of suspicion and early recognition is important for successful management and to prevent systemic complications like multiorgan failure with extremely high morbidity, prolonged hospitalization and, not uncommonly, death. We are reporting a rare case of LS that was complicated with internal jugular vein and cavernous sinus thrombosis along with lung metastatic lesions, which was diagnosed and treated at our institute.     

An Investigation of the “Jumping to Conclusions” Data-Gathering Bias and Paranoid Thoughts in Asperger Syndrome

The existence of a data-gathering bias, in the form of jumping to conclusions, and links to paranoid ideation was investigated in Asperger syndrome (AS). People with AS (N = 30) were compared to a neurotypical control group (N = 30) on the Reading the Mind in the Eyes and the Beads tasks, with self-report measures of depression, general anxiety, social anxiety, self-consciousness and paranoid ideation. The AS group performed less well than the control group on the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Task with regard to accuracy but responded more quickly and tended to make decisions on the basis of less evidence on the Beads Task with 50 % demonstrating a clear ‘jumping to conclusions bias’, whereas none of the control group showed such a bias. Depression and general anxiety were associated with paranoid ideation but not data-gathering style, which was contrary to expectation.     

Time-course of perceptual processing of “hole” and “no-hole” figures: An ERP study

Closure or the presence of a hole is an emergent perceptual feature that can be extracted by the visual system early on. This feature has been shown to have perceptual advantages over openness or no-hole. in this study, we investigated when and how the human brain differentiates between hole and no-hole figures. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded during a passive observation paradigm. Two pairs of simple figures (Experiment 1) and two sets of Greek letters (Experiment 2) were used as stimuli. The ERPs of hole and no-hole figures differed ~90 ms after stimulus onset: hole figures elicited smaller P1 and N1 amplitudes than no-hole figures. These suggest that both P1 and N1 components are sensitive to the difference between hole and no-hole figures; perception of hole and no-hole figures might be differentiated early during visual processing.     

A review of: “Disorders of Space Exploration and Cognition”

Abstract

Ennio De Renzi, Disorders of Space Exploration and Cognition New York, John Wiley&Sons, 1982, 268 pp. $16.75     

“Parents for Parents”: A Self-Help Project for and by Parents of Eating Disorder Patients

The project “Parents for Parents” was set up for and by parents of patients with eating disorders. The primary goal of the project was to train these parents to become “field experts” who can support other parents in similar situations. The volunteering parents were carefully selected and received an intensive training program including knowledge of eating disorders, educational themes, guidance of groups, and counseling techniques. Nine parents have completed the whole training and are now working independently as field experts on a voluntary basis. They run discussion groups, answer telephone calls, and give lectures at schools. There are intervisions on a regular basis to follow up the work of the field experts and adjust it if necessary. This article gives an overview of the different steps in this project with a first evaluation.     

Neuropsychiatric debut as a presentation of Guillain-Barré Syndrome: An atypical clinical case and literature review

IntroductionGuillain Barré Syndrome (GBS) is an acute immune-mediated polyneuropathy most frequently presenting two to four weeks after an acute mild-moderately severe infection as progressive muscular weakness of the lower limbs extending proximally with dysreflexia and autonomic dysfunction. While GBS is typically believed to be isolated to the Peripheral Nervous System, Central Nervous System (CNS) and psychiatric manifestations as a sequela of the disease have been described in different imaging and clinical studies. Many variants of presentation of GBS have been recognized, however a case presenting with primarily psychiatric and autonomic dysfunction preceding muscle weakness has not been cited in the literatures to date.Case presentationWe describe a 24-year-old previously healthy male presenting with behavioral symptoms including depression, anxiety, and amnesia, and autonomic dysfunction which preceded muscle weakness by two weeks. CNS imaging and blood work results were unremarkable. GBS was confirmed upon cerebral spinal fluid analysis remarkable for an important cytoalbuminologic dissociation and markedly elevated protein concentration. The patient responded well to five cycles of inpatient plasmapheresis and short-term selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor treatment with complete recovery of both neurological and behavioral symptoms.ConclusionThough GBS is typically considered a peripheral neuropathy, evidence for CNS involvement exists; GBS should be considered within the differential diagnosis, and neurological features should be monitored, in a patient with new onset unclear psychiatric and CNS symptoms.     

Synaesthesia for Finger Counting and Dice Patterns: A Case of Higher Synaesthesia?

Synaesthesia is often triggered by numbers, although it is conceivable that different aspects of numerical representation are responsible for different variants of synaesthesia. For individuals with “higher synaesthesia” it is assumed that number meaning (or numerosity) is responsible for the elicitation of synaesthetic experiences. This study documents a case study of a synaesthete, TD, who broadly fits this profile. TD reports that the same colours are elicited from physically different representations of number (digits, dice patterns and finger counting) provided that they share the same numerosity. The authenticity of his synaesthesia is established using Stroop-like priming and interference paradigms. Not only does synaesthetic colour interfere with veridical colour judgements, but also veridical colours can interfere with numerosity judgments. This suggests a close bi-directional coupling between numerosity and colour. Together, these findings constrain theories concerning the neural basis of synaesthesia.

     

A Review of: “The Oxford Textbook of Suicidology and Suicide Prevention: A Global Perspective”

Abstract

This study provides data on the characteristics and management of all prisoners identified at risk of suicidal behaviour over a 12 month period in all Scottish prisons. From a total of 44,093 admissions, 1,984 (4.5%) prisoners were identified at time of reception as ‘at risk’ while 857 (1.9%) inmates were classified as ‘at risk’ at some other point during custody. Of those identified ‘at risk’ at time of reception, 19.1% were retained on suicidal supervision, while 58.2% of those identified ‘at risk’ during custody were maintained on some form of suicidal supervision. Average length of time kept on strict suicidal supervision for those identified at time of reception was 1.87 days, and for those identified at some other point during custody was 2.59 days. Results are discussed in relation to the problems associated with suicide prediction and prevention in prison settings and the tendency for risk assessment to create significant numbers of false positives at time of reception.