The paper assessed psychological response of LTCF personnel to the SARS-CoV-2 crisis. Results show that access to PPE, safety guidelines and psychological support at workplace may reduce psychological distress.
Objectives: Subjective Cognitive Decline (SCD) and Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) are common in elderly population, and constitute a high-risk group for progression to dementia. Innovative, complex, and engaging non-pharmacological methods of cognitive stimulation, implementable at this stage, are needed. The aim of the study was to determine the effect of Computerized Cognitive Training (CCT) combined with Whole Body Stimulation (WBC) on cognitive functions of older adults with SCD and MCI.Methods: A 9-week single-blind pre/post case control trial was conducted. The study enrolled 84 adults aged 60 or older, allocated to one of two intervention groups: EG; CCT with psychoeducation, EG2; CCT with psychoeducation and 10 WBC sessions, or the control group (CG), which comprised patients receiving usual care. The primary outcome measures were cognitive functions evaluated with MoCA scale and several other neuropsychological tools. Depressive symptoms assessed with the GDS scale constituted the secondary outcome measures.Results: The results show evidence for increased performance in the assessment of general cognitive functioning in both EGs (p ≤ 0.05). Significant improvement was also visible in several cognitive domains, such as verbal fluency (EG1 & EG2), learning ability and immediate memory (EG1 & EG2), delayed memory (EG2), attentional control (EG1), and information processing (EG2) (p ≤ 0.05). However, only in the group with combined interventions (CCT + WBC) the participants presented significantly less depressive symptoms (p ≤ 0.05).Conclusions: The results of the study suggest that CCT, especially in combination with WBC, might be a practical and effective method of improving cognitive performance. Moreover, this combination leads to a reduction of depressive symptoms.
Background: Arithmetic word-problem solving depends on the interaction of several cognitive processes that may be affected early in the disease in gene-mutation carriers for Huntington’s disease (HD). Objective: Our goal was to examine the pattern of performance of arithmetic tasks in premanifest and manifest HD, and to examine correlations between arithmetic task performance and other neuropsychological tasks. Methods: We collected data from a multicenter cohort of 165 HD gene-mutation carriers. The sample consisted of 31 premanifest participants: 16 far-from (>12 years estimated time to diagnosis; preHD-A) and 15 close-to (≤12 years estimated time to diagnosis; preHD-B), 134 symptomatic patients (early-mild HD), and 37 healthy controls (HC). We compared performance between groups and explored the associations between arithmetic word-problem solving and neuropsychological and clinical variables. Results: Total arithmetic word-problem solving scores were lower in preHD-B patients than in preHD-A (p < 0.05) patients and HC (p < 0.01). Early-mild HD patients had lower scores than preHD patients (p < 0.001) and HC (p < 0.001). Compared to HC, preHD and early-mild HD participants made more errors as trial complexity increased. Moreover, arithmetic word-problem solving scores were significantly associated with measures of global cognition (p < 0.001), frontal-executive functions (p < 0.001), attention (p < 0.001) and visual working memory (p < 0.001), mental rotation (p < 0.001), and confrontation naming (p < 0.05). Conclusion: Arithmetic word-problem solving is affected early in the course of HD and is related to deficient processes in frontal-executive and mentalizing-related processes.
Purpose: The aim of this paper is to present current views on the meaning of trauma and its treatment by the use of Open Dialogue Approach (ODA). Authors broadly define trauma as mental crisis that urges an immediate and comprehensive care. Views: Open Dialogue Approach with its demand on development of professional mental health structures not only meet the requirements imposed on community mental health centre (CMHC) as a core of the National Mental Health Program, but it seems to be exceptionally useful in the context of therapeutic work with traumatized patients and with people in a mental crisis. One of the main aspect of currently carried out mental health reform is the liberalization of hospital beds for those who are in severe mental crisis, substantially the raise od hospital standard for patients admitted to psychiatric hospital and to offer an ambulatory, easily accessible (local) ways of dealing with mental health problems. Conclusions: At the core of the ODA lies a broad understanding of traumatic experience and broad perception of its symptomatic and processual consequences issuing mental crisis, which requires a fast, diverse and coordinated care. ODA may be defined as an integrative and community-oriented model of mental health service that follows constantly changing patients' needs. Available mental health structural frame-if well-coordinated-seems sufficient and could adequately respond to patient needs in the recovery process. Further prospective and methodologically well designed studies measuring method's treatment outcomes and cost-effectiveness should be conducted.
Introduction: Day care centres (DCC) aim to support older adults living in their own homes by providing a variety of activities to promote the independence of those people and reduce the caregiver’s burden. In Poland, there are no standards for providing this form of care. The provided care is delivered by different organisations, and there is a lack of quality control in the majority of places. Regrettably, in Poland, there is a paucity of research on the holistic needs of the elderly attending DCC. Aim of this study: This is the first study which has aimed to identify the Polish day care centres attendees’ needs to ensure that the increasing number of older people receive the best possible care, and as a part of the quality improvement process for recommendation development of the new day care services model in Poland within the ‘Homely Marina’ project. Methods and Materials: A representative sample (n = 269) was randomly selected from day care centres attendees (estimated as 10,688) in Poland. An anonymous survey for the assessment of needs was developed by the authors. Results: The respondents assessed the level of provided services as very good or good. Best rated services included meals, supportive and welfare services (occupational therapy, music therapy, art therapy, cognitive training). Almost half of the participants indicated the need for company as the main reason to attend a DCC. This research reveals a lack of support with regard to additional staff: e.g., a nurse. Conclusions: In Poland, the services offered in DCC should focus on social isolation and sense of loneliness prevention, and maintenance of social activity of the elderly. The presented analysis of needs in Polish day care centres suggests a need for changes which may improve the quality of services. There is a great need to find a balance between home-based care and in-patient care, using better integration of available services and strengthening support for informal caregivers. Robust research with a collection of meaningful outcomes is required to ensure that in Poland, the increasing number of older people is enabled to access high-quality day care service provision.
Podstawą diagnostyki choroby Parkinsona jest stwierdzenie osiowych objawów ruchowych, takich jak sztywność, bradykinezja, zaburzenia postawy i drżenia spoczynkowe. W ostatnich latach zwraca się także uwagę na objawy pozaruchowe (poznawcze, neuropsychiatryczne i wegetatywne), które często poprzedzają manifestację objawów ruchowych i w znaczącym stopniu obniżają jakość życia chorych. U pacjentów z chorobą Parkinsona często stwierdza się spowolnienie myślenia (bradyfrenię), zaburzenia funkcji wykonawczych i wzrokowo-przestrzennych oraz osłabienie procesów uwagi, więc przedmiotem zainteresowania badaczy staje się opracowanie skutecznych strategii terapeutycznych, które pozwolą spowolnić lub zatrzymać proces deterioracji poznawczej. W artykule zaprezentowano wyniki badań dotyczących efektywności ściśle poznawczych, niefarmakologicznych strategii terapeutycznych ukierunkowanych na poprawę sprawności kognitywnej osób z chorobą Parkinsona. Omówione badania sugerują, że treningi poznawcze i rehabilitacja poznawcza są bezpiecznymi i skutecznymi metodami poprawiania sprawności poznawczej pacjentów. Wszyscy autorzy donoszą o poprawie sprawności przynajmniej jednej funkcji pod wpływem treningu i rehabilitacji. Sprawność poznawcza poprawiła się w największym stopniu w następujących obszarach: uwaga, pamięć epizodyczna i funkcje wykonawcze, które w chorobie Parkinsona są szczególnie podatne na osłabienie. Niemniej wciąż brakuje badań z liczniejszymi grupami interwencyjnymi, badań porównujących efektywność treningów u osób na różnym etapie zaawansowania choroby oraz badań longitudinalnych, które pokazałyby, czy uzyskana poprawa jest trwała i czy przekłada się na funkcjonowanie pacjentów w życiu codziennym (transfer nabytych umiejętności).Słowa kluczowe: choroba Parkinsona, deficyty poznawcze, trening poznawczy, rehabilitacja poznawcza A diagnosis of Parkinson's disease is based on axial motor symptoms of the disease, such as stiffness, bradykinesia, postural disturbances and resting tremors. In recent years, attention has also been paid to non-motor symptoms (cognitive, neuropsychiatric and vegetative) that often precede the manifestation of movement symptoms and significantly reduce the patients' quality of life. Patients with Parkinson's disease often experience slowness of thought (bradyphrenia), impaired executive and visuospatial functions, and weakening of attention processes. Developing effective therapeutic strategies that will slow or stop the cognitive deterioration becomes the subject of researchers' interest. The article below presents the results of research on the effectiveness of strictly cognitive non-pharmacological interactions, aimed at improving cognitive performance of patients with Parkinson's disease (cognitive training, cognitive rehabilitation). These studies suggest that cognitive training and cognitive rehabilitation are safe and effective methods of improving cognitive performance of patients with Parkinson's disease. All studies report improvement of performance in at least one function under the inf...
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