<b><i>Background:</i></b> The thalamus is known as the central sensory and motor relay station of the brain generally. However, cognitive decline due to thalamic lesions has been previously reported in different studies. Also, it has been observed that different cognitive subdomains are affected according to the localization of the lesion in the thalamus. <b><i>Objectives and Methods:</i></b> Detailed neurophysiological tests were performed on 28 patients with thalamic hemorrhage and the control group. Patients were grouped according to lesion localization. The results were compared with both the control group and the hemorrhage groups themselves. <b><i>Results:</i></b> The performance of patients in all neuropsychological tests was significantly worse than that of the control group. Of the 28 patients, 15 had anterolateral, 5 had posterolateral, 5 had dorsal, and 3 had an anteromedial thalamic hemorrhage. The anteromedial group had the worst scores of almost all tests. Also, 2 situations came to notice in these tests. First, the posterolateral group achieved a remarkably low mean in the recall subgroup of the MMSE tests and verbal memory process tests. Second, the anterolateral group was found to have a low mean in both the language subgroup of the MMSE tests and the phonemic subgroup of the verbal fluency tests. <b><i>Conclusion:</i></b> It was concluded in this study that thalamic hemorrhages affect cognition entirely regardless of the lesion localization. It was also observed that the lateral part of the thalamus was associated with language, the posterior part with memory, and the anteromedial part with the rest of the cognitive subdomains.
Introduction: Cognitive, behavioral, and psychiatric disorders
associated with dementia cause stigma against Alzheimer’s disease (AD)
in both patients, caregivers, and healthy individuals in public. To the
best of our knowledge, since stigma against AD is not investigated in
the Turkish public, we wanted to evaluate the stigma of healthy Turkish
people according to their demographic characteristics in our study.
Materials and Methods: 439 healthy participants without any history of
neurological and/or systemic disease were included in this
cross-sectional observational study. Demographic characteristics and
knowledge about the AD of the participants were recorded. A ten-question
survey was applied to the participants to assess the stigmatization
against AD. Factors associated with the stigma score were evaluated in
regression analysis. Results: 253 men and 186 women were included in
this study (mean age: 35.7 ± 9.8 years ). Most of them had knowledge
about AD (94.3%). Only 18.5% had a family history of AD. Sixty-five
percent had married. 95 of 439 persons (21.6%) worked in health fields.
60.6% of healthy participants had a moderate-high stigma against AD.
The mean stigma score was 8.95 ± 4.79. Total stigma scores were higher
in women and single persons (p = 0.001 / p< 0.001). Healthcare
workers expressed the highest levels of stigma (p < 0.001).
Age, knowledge, and family history of AD did not influence stigma.
Shame, loss of self-esteem, and fear of exclusion were expressed the
most. Conclusion: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study
that evaluated perceived stigma against AD in the Turkish healthy
population. The higher incidence of stigma among women and single
persons can be explained by cultural reasons. Stigma in health
professionals may lead to delay in early diagnosis and management of AD.
Further studies of perceived stigma are necessary to improve
intervention strategies.
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