Management of Organophosphorus poisoning can be difficult at times, especially when there is no history of poisoning or where the compound is not known to begin with & which is compounded by the absence of odour. Plasmapheresis has been tried effectively in toxicology in the treatment of various toxic substances ingestion, and can replace circulating cholinesterase in these patients with organophosphate poisoning. We report a case of young boy who initially presented with unknown compound poisoning, but subsequently had clinical features of organophosphorus poisoning alongwith reduced levels of acetyl cholinesterase, managed by plasmapheresis.

written by Journal of Clinical Toxicology

It is believed that neural plasticity plays an important role in the process of human cognition and motor practicing. Tremendous researches on neural plasticity have been done in the past 30 years. In this paper, we discussed the factors that may affect neural plasticity and the widely used modulation techniques. The purpose of this review is to present the current-state-of-art of neural plasticity studies and help readers to envision the future research directions.

written by Journal of Neurology and Neurophysiology

People with epilepsy (PWE) have an increased risk for cognitive, behavioral, and psychosocial disorders. The presence of comorbidities may directly affect quality of life of PWE. For example, there is an increased risk for suicide in PWE, compared to the general population. Association between epilepsy and mental disorders is a condition known since Antiquity, and its ranges from 20 to 50%, reaching 80% in selected populations, like individuals with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE), and medically intractable patients, candidates to surgical treatment, and these indices are far superior to those found in general population (10-20%). Risk factors for the main psychiatric comorbidities in PWE (depression, anxiety and psychosis) are classified in (1) neurobiological, (2) psychosocial, and (3) pharmacological factors. There is a bidirectional relationship between epilepsy and mental disorders, namely, not only the epileptic disorder can antedate settlement of psychiatric symptoms in a given patient, but also the diagnosis of mood and behavioral disorders may be made before a first epileptic seizure. This bidirectionality suggests that structural and functional modifications of one disease increase the risk for the development of the other. In this review, we included the most recent articles concerning the terms “mental disorders”, “epilepsy”, and “risk factors” in PubMed. Book chapters were also referred for this work. We gave preference for population-based studies, especially those with more than 100 patients studied.

written by Journal of Neurology and Neurophysiology