This study examined the immediate effects of neurologic music therapy (NMT) on cognitive functioning and emotional adjustment with brain-injured persons. Four treatment sessions were held, during which participants were given a pre-test, participated in 30 min of NMT that focused on one aspect of rehabilitation (attention, memory, executive function, or emotional adjustment), which was followed by post-testing. Control participants engaged in a pre-test, 30 min of rest, and then a post-test. Treatment participants showed improvement in executive function and overall emotional adjustment, and lessening of depression, sensation seeking, and anxiety. Control participants improved in emotional adjustment and lessening of hostility, but showed decreases in measures of memory, positive affect, and sensation seeking.
Assessment of patients with depression tends to focus on the psychiatric symptoms of the disorder to quantify distress, potential for suicide, and helps determine the appropriate course of treatment. However, research increasingly reveals comorbid organic and biological deficits in higher order cortical skills and subcortical processes which should be considered when assessing the depressed patient. The current study investigated the presence of cortical and subcortical sensory deficits in a group of 36 patients with Major Depressive Disorder as compared to a group of normal controls. The results of a MANOVA indicated a significant performance difference between depressed and nondepressed participants (Wilks' Lambda = .437, F = 3.68, p > .001). Subsequent univariate tests showed normals performed better on 29 of 35 variables of a sensory-motor battery. Deficits in sensory and motor functioning can have a profound impact on patient functioning and may remit with treatment. Thus, a comprehensive neuropsychological battery for patients with depression should include standardized and psychometrically sound measures of sensory and motor functioning.
Nocardia infection is a rare bacterial disorder that tends to affect the lungs and, in immunocompromised individuals, may progress to the brain. The brief, consecutive neuropsychological and neurobehavioral data of a 49-year-old male who developed multiple nocardia-related brain abscesses in the left frontal, occipital, and right cerebellar areas are reviewed. Neuropsychological findings indicated that he maintained mild-to-moderate impairments, primarily in executive functions, upon follow-up evaluation 43 days subsequent to baseline evaluation. This case demonstrates the utility of brief, serial neuropsychological screening in tracking the progression of an infectious process for the purposes of treatment planning and disposition.
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