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Aim: To determine cues to identify intensive care unit patients with distorted memories and related practices., Design: Qualitative descriptive study., Methods: Twenty nurses were included in semi-structured focus groups. Qualitative content analysis was conducted., Results: Cues and nursing practices related to distorted memories emerged under the following categories: "Get to know daily life before admission," "Facial expressions and behaviour are different from usual," "Pay close attention to the treatment outcome," "Notice it after the fact," "Sharing patients' intensive care unit experiences" and "Creates a new life." Nurses tried to detect distorted memories by observing the patients' facial expressions, medication effects and delirium presence during their normal lives and treatments, while trying to understand the patients' intensive care unit experiences and provide care that promotes autonomous living. This study emphasizes the importance of support for reconstructing ordinary life through communication and rehabilitation, in addition to support for medical care for distorted memories., (© 2021 The Authors. Nursing Open published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Background: Brainstem cavernomas (BSCs) are rare and difficult to treat. The treatment strategy for symptomatic lesions in elderly patients remains unclear. In this review, we discuss the optimal treatment strategy and consider effective surgical strategies in elderly patients., Case Description: The clinical data of 8 elderly patients (age >70 years) with symptomatic BSCs drawn from the literature and 2 of our cases are summarized in this review. The mean patient age was 73.3 ± 3.13 years, and the most common location was the pons. Multiple rebleeding before surgery was seen in at least 4 cases, with clinical presentation and surgical approach varying depending on the location. Surgical removal was performed in 9 cases, and 1 case was treated with radiosurgery. The mean duration of clinical follow-up was 26.1 ± 18.2 months. Neurologic improvement was found in 5 cases, and postoperative decline was seen in 1 of the surgery cases., Conclusions: Radical resection of the cavernoma with severe symptoms might be recommended in elderly patients, especially in those with multiple rebleeding events. From the viewpoint of surgery, we consider the subacute phase the optimal time to remove cavernomas in elderly hemorrhagic patients. However, multiple rebleeding events might exacerbate the neurologic deficit. Therefore, the subacute phase from the first or second rebleeding might be the best time for the surgical resection. At surgical intervention, preservation of the surrounding brain should be prioritized over complete removal of the cavernoma and hematoma., (Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Major depressive disorder (MDD), bipolar disorder (BD), and schizophrenia (SZ) are associated with cognitive dysfunction both in adulthood and in later life. In this study, we directly compared neurocognitive function between these three conditions in later life, employing stringent definitions of euthymia and symptomatic remission. Cognitive function in 60 elderly outpatients with MDD, BD, or SZ (20 patients per group) was assessed using the Japanese version of the Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia. Patients with MDD had significantly higher z scores than both the other groups with large or moderately large effect sizes, for verbal fluency, attention and speed of information processing, and composite scores. In contrast, there were no significant differences in the degree of neurocognitive impairment between patients with BD and SZ. In later life, patients with BD and SZ showed a similar degree of neurocognitive impairment, while patients with MDD showed smaller impairments in several neurocognitive domains compared to patients with either of the other two disorders., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Aim: This study investigated whether or not and how much milnacipran influences the indexes of I-metaiodobenzylguanidine (I-MIBG) scintigraphy, early heart-to-mediastinum (H/M) ratio, delayed H/M ratio, and wash-out rate., Methods: Six elderly depressed patients participated in the study. All six patients met the diagnostic criteria for a major depressive disorder. They were taking milnacipran for their depression. They needed differential diagnosis for Lewy body diseases due to their symptomatology. I-MIBG scintigraphy was performed twice for each subject, once under prescription of milnacipran and the other without prescription of milnacipran., Results: Both early and delayed phase H/M ratio were significantly lower when taking milnacipran (early phase H/M ratio, P < 0.01, Cohen's d 1.62; delayed phase H/M ratio, P < 0.005, Cohen's d 1.98) than when not taking the drug. Wash-out rate (%) was significantly higher when taking milnacipran (P < 0.05, Cohen's d 2.31) than when off the drug., Conclusion: Taking milnacipran substantially influences the indexes of I-MIBG scintigraphy, indicating that taking the drug possibly causes a false-positive result for Lewy body diseases diagnosis.

To investigate whether prefrontal function during a cognitive task reflects the social functioning of male Japanese workers, prefrontal function during a working memory task in 181 male workers was measured by multi-channel near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). Social functioning was assessed using the Social Adaptation Self-Evaluation Scale (SASS). The results indicated that cortical oxygenation level increases in dorsolateral prefrontal region showed significant positive correlations with the interest and motivation factor scores on the SASS. These results suggest that dorsolateral prefrontal function is associated with the interest and motivation factor in social functioning in male workers and that NIRS could be an addition to the medical tools for monitoring these characteristics on mental health examination., (© 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.)