Clinicians & therapists

A simple tool predicts five-year dementia risk in stroke survivors using routine clinic and hospital data, an international team reports. The analysis drew on more than 2,600 stroke survivors across 12 studies in 10 countries, coordinated through the global Stroke and Cognition Consortium (STROKOG). Researchers found that a combination of age, sex, education, stroke severity, [...]

People experiencing delusions during psychosis may be ‘living out’ deep emotions, research suggests, offering a new way to understand the condition. The study sets out a “radically different perspective” on delusions, challenging older ideas that they are only a ‘glitched brain’. About 2-3 per cent of people in the UK and Australia experience psychosis, often [...]

MotoGP's governing body, the FIM, has published its first concussion guidelines for assessment and management for all levels of motorcycle competition. Concussions occur after a significant blow to the head, a high-risk scenario for riders in crashes. Across world sport, there has been a push to improve concussion response amid findings of the long-lasting impact [...]

Northern Scotland has one of the world's highest Huntington's disease rates, more than five times the estimated global average, new research shows. For the first time in 35 years, scientists have accurately quantified the number of people in the region carrying the gene that causes the condition. Using NHS family-based records, researchers identified more than [...]

An automated consciousness tool that fuses six tests has been built to sharpen diagnosis and estimate recovery in patients with disorders of consciousness. Tested in three European centres, the tool may help clinicians give more tailored assessments of disorders of consciousness, its developers say. After stroke, traumatic brain injury or cardiac arrest, some people sustain [...]

Mild head injuries may raise Alzheimer’s risk later in life, but swift treatment after trauma could reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s and other long-term brain damage, new research suggests. Lab studies found a single mild traumatic brain injury can damage the brain’s lymphatic drainage system, the waste-clearing network that removes harmful proteins. In mice, repairing [...]

Long-term residential exposure to chlorpyrifos is linked to more than a 2.5-fold higher risk of Parkinson's, a study suggests. The research combines human population data with lab experiments showing how the pesticide damages dopamine-producing brain cells (neurons that make the signalling chemical dopamine), providing biological evidence for the link. Around 166,000 people in the UK [...]

NICE has recommended natalizumab, sold as Tysabri and Tyruko, as an option for certain people with hard-to-control multiple sclerosis. The decision by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence will allow NHS coverage of the drug in England, with decisions also influencing NHS coverage in other parts of the UK. The guidance specifically recommends [...]

Researchers validated a wireless EEG method to measure neuroplasticity, offering a non-invasive way to track how the brain responds to new treatments. The approach could provide an objective readout of brain response to therapies for psychiatric and neurodegenerative conditions. Neuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to reorganise its connections after experience, injury or disease, for example [...]

People with high psychopathic traits face a 9.3 times higher schizophrenia risk than those with low traits, research suggests. The study also found that individuals classified as psychopathic were 2.37 times more likely to develop the condition than their non-psychopathic peers. Psychopathic traits are personality features involving shallow emotion, reduced empathy and limited remorse for [...]