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PurposeAlthough smoking is known to cause various symptoms in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients, there have been no reports regarding the relationship between smoking and cognitive impairment in MS. Studying the effects of cigarette smoking in MS patients is imperative as there is a high prevalence of cognitive impairment in MS patients. In this study we examined the potentially deleterious effects of heavy smoking on mentation of patients with MS.Patients and methodsMS patients receiving care at the Neurology Clinic at Bezmialem Vakıf University, between the ages of 18–65 years who have at least graduated elementary school were included in the study. The Brief Repeatable Battery of Neuropsychological Tests (BRB-N) is a commonly used method to assess cognitive function in MS patients and was utilized in our study. Patients that smoked for at least 10 pack-years were considered heavy smokers.ResultsAll the patients were stratified into two groups: heavy smokers (n=20) and nonsmokers (n=24). For heavy smokers, their cognitive functioning was more impaired than that of nonsmokers (P=0.04, χ2=4.227). For patients with cognitive impairment, 78.9% of the Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test and 63.2% of the Symbol Digit Modalities Test scores were found to be lower.ConclusionPrevious reports have suggested that smoking increases the frequency of relapse among individuals with relapsing-remitting MS and accelerates disease progression in patients with progressive MS. According to the results of our study, heavy smokers had increased cognitive impairment when compared to nonsmokers. Extensive studies are necessary to further elucidate the relationship between smoking and cognitive impairment in MS patients.

Our findings may be a clue for early onset of impairment in cognitive functions in cases with new onset diabetes during pregnancy.

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There is a lack of data on parental attitudes toward children with primary headaches. The aim of this study is to determine whether there is a relationship between primary headaches and parental attitudes in the pre-adolescent pediatric population. In this cross-sectional study, 195 children with primary headache and 43 healthy children aged 9–16 years were included. A questionnaire for sociodemographic variables, visual analog scale (VAS), Social Anxiety Scale and Depression Inventory for Adolescents and Children, and Parental Attitudes Determining Scale (PATS), which is an attitude measure specifically designed to evaluate psychological adjustment, were administered. Of 195 children (female/male ratio: 89/106, mean age: 12.59 ± 1.09 years), episodic migraine ( n = 90), chronic migraine ( n = 25), and tension-type headache ( n = 80) were evaluated. There was no significant difference among headache groups and healthy subjects in terms of depression, anxiety, and fathers’ attitude scale scores. However, there were significant differences in mean mothers’ attitude scale scores and VAS scores ( p = .002, p = .000). Mean oppressive-authoritarian attitude subscale scores of mothers’ was significantly higher in children with chronic migraine ( p = .000). A relationship between depression and VAS scores among all patient groups was detected ( p = .000). Parental age was negatively related to PATS scores of children with episodic migraine and tension-type headache ( p = .037 and p = .036). Parental attitudes may elevate psychiatric symptoms and influence children’s perception of pain intensity and result in chronification of headache. Our findings support that mothers’ attitude toward children with chronic migraine has strong impacts on the child’s pain experience.

Avaliação do efeito da psicoterapia de grupo sobre as funções cognitivas de pacientes com esclerose múltipla que apresentam simultaneamente alterações cognitivas e depressão Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory disease considered to be of autoimmune origin and characterized by focal inflammatory-demyelinating lesions, neuroinflammation, and neurodegeneration of the central nervous system (CNS), affecting the white matter, cortex and deep gray matter of the brain 1 . The demyelination associated with MS lesions and axonal degeneration is responsible for neurological disabilities in patients with MS 1 . One or more psychiatric symptoms, including anxiety and depression, are observed in approximately 80% of individuals with MS 2,3 . Schiffer noted that a high incidence and prevalence of depressive symptoms have been reported in MS compared to many other neurological diseases 4 . Assessments with neuropsychological tests can identify the presence of cognitive dysfunction in 65% of patients with MS, compared to only 5% of outpatient controls 5 . Cognitive dysfunction, independent of the physical disability created by the disease itself, is an important factor that impairs routine daily activities and decreases labor productivity 6,7,8 . Cognitive disorders observed in MS usually affect memory,

Objectives: Recent studies have shown a more frequent occurrence of sexual dysfunction in patients with headache. The aim of this study was to assess the effects of demographic and clinical characteristics and psychiatric symptoms on sexual dysfunction in Turkish female patients with migraine. Methods: In all, 18 sexually active patients with episodic migraine (EM), 12 patients with chronic migraine (CM), and 22 healthy controls of similar age were enrolled in the study. A numeric rating scale was administered to assess pain intensity. The psychiatric symptoms and sexual function of all of the participants were evaluated using the Beck depression and anxiety scales and the Golombok-Rust Inventory of Sexual Satisfaction (GRISS). Results: The mean GRISS subscale scores did not differ significantly between the migraine groups and the control group (all p values <0.05). A positive correlation was found between the duration of headache and GRISS subscales of noncommunication, dissatisfaction, vaginismus, and anorgasmia in EM patients. In addition, there was a negative correlation with the infrequency and avoidance subscales. No correlation was detected between the GRISS subscale scores and the demographic and clinical characteristics of the patients with CM, with the exception of the level of education. Higher pain intensity scores and the presence of anxiety or depression among the EM and CM patients significantly affected all of the subscale scores of the sexual function inventory. Conclusion:Although there was no relationship between migraine chronicity and sexual dysfunction, our data indicated that patient demographic characteristics, greater pain severity, and comorbidities of depression or anxiety were associated with greater sexual dysfunction among patients with EM and CM.

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