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Trajectories of poverty influence the mental health of mothers and children. Previous studies utilize objective measures despite the importance of subjective measures of poverty. Furthermore, chronic economic hardship may erode personal resources such as self-esteem which increases vulnerability to mental health issues. Trajectories of perceived family economic hardship and their relationship with common mental health disorders, as mediated by self-esteem, were investigated in 511 mother-child dyads from Singapore. Three distinct groups of economic hardship trajectories were delineated, namely the low stable, high stable and moderate decreasing group. The high stable group was found to be associated with a greater likelihood of mother's depression, mother's anxiety and child's anxiety when compared to the low stable group. The moderate decreasing group was found to be associated with a greater likelihood of mother's anxiety when compared to the low stable group. Mother's self-esteem was found to mediate all the significant relations found. These findings indicate the existence of distinct trajectories of perceived economic hardship within low-income families and their relation with mental health outcomes in mothers and children. The mediation of these relations by mother's self-esteem suggests the importance of enhancing self-esteem in mothers from low-income backgrounds., Competing Interests: Conflicts of interest/Competing interestsThe authors have no conflicts of interest to declare that are relevant to the content of this article., (© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2022.)

This study examined how 34 senior students and first-year college students with autism spectrum disorder, their mothers (n = 34) and fathers (n = 26) navigate the higher education transition, and how this context impacts on dynamics in the parent-child relationships. Semi-structured interviews were analyzed based on grounded theory and dyadic analysis principles. Both parties were confronted with an abundance of challenges and experienced strong feelings of ambivalence, stress and anxiety. Differences in perspectives occurred regarding the construction of adulthood, the acquisition of autonomy, disclosure and subscribing to support services. These differences caused tensions in the parent-child relationship, hindering the transformation of the relationship into an adult-like mutual relationship. Clinical implications are extrapolated on the basis of these findings.

The authors report a case of loss of mental imagery in a 35 year old male patient who was operated on for an intraventricular meningioma in the region of the left trigonum collaterale. The symptomatology and its evolution are described. Discussion of the pathophysiologic hypotheses is focused on the possible role of a selective memory disturbance, of a functional disconnection between language- and visual representation-areas of the brain, and of visual agnosia. In the reported case, the underlying pathophysiologic mechanism seems to be very close to the one responsible for visual agnosia, and could be explained as a partial dissolution of visual memories. Analysis of 35 cases of loss of mental imagery reported in the literature shows that the investigation of this peculiar disturbance is in many cases incomplete. It nevertheless reveals that visual agnosia, or a particular form of visual agnosia, is present in all cases of unilateral posterior lesion of the dominant hemisphere.

The authors report ten cases of progressive dementia. Nine are associated with gait disturbances and seven with urinary incontinence. Despite the severity of dementia and Ct Scan signs of cortical atrophy, magnitude of neuroradiological ventricular dilatation and ventricular reflux at isotopic cisternography lead to shunt therapy. After ventricular shunting of CSF, a follow-up at short and long terms shows different clinical evolutions: two transitory improvements, three cases without change and five worsening. Retrospective clinical study of these cases in which diagnosis leads to a degenerative process of the Alzheimer type shows atypical premorbid neuropsychological characteristics by a normal-pressure hydrocephalus. In fact, in the ten cases preoperative neuropsychological investigation shows, at various levels, aphasic, alexic and agraphic signs. Their occurrence in the clinical picture represents an essential contribution to differential diagnosis.

Head trauma can generate various psychopathological sequelae either in intellectual functions or personality. The post-traumatic sequelae that are focused on in this work are memory disturbances, dementia and personality problems. It partially sums up fifteen years of psychological studies on head injuries conducted in the department of neurosurgery of Prof. Jean Brihaye.

The authors study the characteristics of a group of 23 patients for whom an initial tentative diagnosis of Hakim-Adams syndrome (H-A syndrome) was eventually rejected. On account of several factors distinguishing these patients from the true H-A group, the authors propose using the term "pseudo Hakim-Adams syndrome". The distinguishing factors include: the grounds for admission, i.e. mental or mnesic deterioration, associated with radiological images of ventricular dilatation; a clinical picture dominated by mental disorders with only rare disorders of gait and sphincter control (several neurological defects were direct consequences of previous cerebral disease); no antecedents of spontaneous meningeal hemorrhage or meningitis in the case history; neuropsychological examination showing fewer disorders of concentration and less dyscalculia and constructive dyspraxia than in true HA, and far more atypical signs of the aphasic and anxio-depressive type. The authors think that various pathological processes may be responsible for this pseudo H-A syndrome in which a predominant mental picture is associated with ventricular dilatation.

A 54-year-old female patient presented acute hallucinatory psychotic episodes with irritative EEG for seven years before an initial state of complex partial mal. A single convulsive episode occurred 14 years after the beginning of the psychiatric symptoms. The intercritical EEG showed independent temporal lobe foci predominating on the right. It varied little during delirious phases but these occurred three times during weaning from antiepileptic drugs. The delirium improved when the treatment was restored, whereas neuroleptics proved ineffective. Psychiatric signs frequently described in epilepsy and particularly temporal epilepsy are reviewed. Usually, these symptoms are not concomitant. The literature mentions only a very few cases where psychosis appears to be ictal as in the reported case.

In view of the unpredictable percentage of NPH patients who benefit from surgery and the risk of postoperative complications, the study of predictive parameters appears essential. The literature shows many conflicting results in studies which focus on predictive values. The present study is based on a series of 63 patients, all of whom underwent surgery for NPH. Fifty one historical, clinical, paraclinical and neuropsychological parameters were submitted to statistical analysis on the basis of the postoperative results. Nine of these parameters were correlated with the postoperative evolution: aetiology, chronic alcoholism and seven neuropsychological signs, in particular verbal signs. A statistical analysis by logistical regression allows us to describe an optimum predictive model. The most significant results are discussed.

After a review of current concepts about post-traumatic mutism, the authors describe five patients with this unusual symptom. The study extends on a long follow-up period. Differential diagnosis and possible neurological and psychopathological factors are discussed. Analysis of their personal observations leads the authors to think that there is a relationship between the length of coma and the duration of mutism. Frontal and/or bilateral lesions seem to be more likely to produce post-traumatic mutism, as does the existence of emotional disturbances or depressive symptoms in past history.

After reviewing the literature on psychic disturbance in normal pressure hydrocephalus, the author reports on 26 cases of CSF drainage. Impairment of memory and concentration were always present in normal pressure hydrocephalus; behaviour disorders were very frequent and characterized by both types of frontal behaviour; the mental picture also comprised difficulties of calculation, writing, visuoconstructive praxis and, less frequently, impaired speech and reading ability. CSF drainage brought clinical improvement in 73% of the cases. Disorders of consciousness, mental function and behaviour regressed generally progressively as soon as the operation had been performed. Two major factors affecting therapeutic efficacity appear to be the patient's age and the length of time between onset of the symptoms and start of therapy.