Around the world, spinal cord injury (SCI) is a common and devastating long-term complication of trauma that can result in lifelong disability or even death. There are frequent media reports of treatments that may help patients with SCI walk again and these range from new drugs, to robotic devices to new developments in stem cell […]
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Dementia in Parkinson’s disease: what can we do about it?
It has been around 200 years since James Parkinson first outlined the clinical features of the condition that would later bear his name. While his descriptions of Parkinson’s Disease (‘shaking palsy’) may have focussed largely around the motor manifestations of this condition, recent insights have provided strong evidence that non-motor manifestations contribute significantly to poor […]
Infections and cancer: any link to brain tumours?
There have been numerous postulated links between the development of cancer following exposure to infectious organisms. In the case of the connection between human papilloma virus and cervical cancer, this association has led to ground-breaking treatments in the form of vaccination. A similar connection has been developed between hepatitis B and liver cancer. While many […]
Fish oil: a treatment for severe epilepsy?
Happy New Year to all JNNP readers! In order to ensure that we start 2015 with an optimistic outlook, I thought that the first post of this year should concern a clinical trial with a positive outcome! Epilepsy is a common and very debilitating condition which leads to significant impairments in quality of life. While […]
Neurodegeneration in MS: A clue to diability?
Corticla tarophy has been proposed as an imprtant pathophysiological mechanisms in disability development in progressive forms of multiple sclerosis. A number of studies utilsing sophistcated MRI tehcniques have yielded such evidence. In this issue of JNNP and elegant study demonstrated the importance of neurodegeneration at a pathological level, “reflected by a global reduction of neuronal […]
Forbes Norris Award for editor of JNNP-Professor Matthew Kiernan
It gives me great pleasure to announce that Matthew Kiernan was awarded the highly prestigious Forbes Norris Award by the International ALS Alliance. The Forbes Norris Award, first presented in 1994, honours the memory of Dr. Forbes “Ted” Norris (1928 – 1993), a neurologist who dedicated his career to helping people with ALS/MND. The purpose […]
Stress and stroke
There are a number of risk factors that we commonly associate with stroke, including hypertension, smoking history, and diabetes. The current issue of JNNP explores the role of stress resilience in the aetiology of stroke http://jnnp.bmj.com/content/85/12/1331.abstract . The authors have assessed a large Swedish male population and have provided interesting insights into the role of […]
Working ok with CMT?
The issue of whether excessive work may lead to increased weakness in hereditary neuropathy is a vexing one and critical for patient management. in this issue of JNNP this notion has been categorcially dismissed. There was no worsening weakness with overwork in a large CMT1A cohort. Read more: http://jnnp.bmj.com/content/85/12/1354.abstract Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 2014;85:1354-1358 […]
Multiple sclerosis: what is the role of iron?
In the last decade or so, we have seen numerous major advances in our understanding of multiple sclerosis (MS). While the condition was traditionally viewed as a disease of the brain white matter, this hypothesis has been turned on its head with the discovery that grey matter involvement occurs in MS. Furthermore, we now know […]
ALS: A long pre-clinical period. Does it start at conception?
ALS is a rapidly progressive neurodegenerative disorder of the motor neurons with median survival of 3-5 years. The site of disease onset, and the timing of disease onset remain controversial, although a sudden and catastrophic degeneration of the motor neurons does occur. In this issue of JNNP a though provoking review by Eisen and colleagues […]