No abstract

Using four brief assessment scales, profiles of mental health and psychological well-being were obtained from 507 old (aged 65-74 years) and 535 very old (aged 75+) individuals randomly sampled from the community. Assessments of dementia and depression were subsequently validated against diagnostic ratings made by experienced psychogeriatricians. Levels of agreement between psychometric and clinical ratings of dementia (kappa = 0.83) and depression (kappa = 0.66) were satisfactory. The old and very old groups reported similar levels of anxiety and personal disturbance, and showed a similar prevalence of depression. However, those aged 75+ showed higher levels of dementia and significantly lower levels of social involvement and morale.

Patients with dementia with lewy bodies (DLB) have progressive deficits in cognition, parkinsonism, and neuropsychiatric symptoms. Cholinesterase inhibitors have been used to ameliorate cognitive decline and neuropsychiatric symptoms in short-term trials. In this study, patients with DLB were treated with rivastigmine up to 96 weeks. Improvement from baseline was seen in cognitive function as measured by the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), and neuropsychiatric symptoms as measured by the Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI) over the first 24 weeks of treatment. By 96 weeks, neither the MMSE scores nor the NPI scores were significantly worse than at baseline.

This study provides evidence of the benefits of a specialist multiagency home support service over standard home care, in the opinion of service users, carers and careworkers, and defines the operational model that achieves this. Findings confirm best practice recommendations, based on models of dementia care which emphasise respect for 'personhood'.

Anterior cruciate ligament-deficient (ACLD) knee kinematics during high-demand activities are poorly understood. We have devised a new method, using gait analysis, to more accurately assess 3-D in vivo kinematics of the knee. This has enabled us to report on how knee kinematics are altered after ACL rupture, during running and cutting. Fifteen unilaterally ACLD subjects were assessed using a 12-camera 100 Hz VICON motion analysis system. Simultaneous electromyographical (EMG) recordings were used to assess the role of the sensorimotor system in knee joint stability. All subjects were able to perform demanding cutting activities without experiencing symptoms of instability. We found that running produces fundamentally different kinematic patterns to those seen during walking. Tibiofemoral translation in the anteroposterior plane is controlled to within normal limits. Conversely, coronal translation and rotation are poorly controlled. We found that the injured leg was maintained in greater extension during the stance phase of all running activities studied and that the quadriceps muscle was active for longer during this period. We believe that low-demand activities, such as walking, do not reproduce kinematics relevant to ACLD instability and that future investigations into functional instability in the ACLD knee should focus on coronal and rotational displacements.