1.Assessment of Behavioral Problems in Children Pre- and Post-Cochlear Implant: An Egyptian Study
Ahmed Ali ABDELMONEM ; Hisham SALAH ; Heba Ashour MOSTAFA ; Noha A. Abd ELMONEM ; Doaa Mahmoud KHALIL ; Rabie Sayed YOUSSEF ; Reham Ahmed FAHIEM
Psychiatry Investigation 2022;19(9):763-769
Objective:
The present study aimed to detect the behavioral problems pre- and post-cochlear implantation in comparison to normal hearing group to be able to manage these problems to get more benefit from using cochlear implants.
Methods:
A case-control study included 53 children was done. They were divided into 2 groups, the control group included 28 healthy volunteers with normal hearing and the case group included 25 children with severe to profound hearing loss, fitted for cochlear implantation. The Arabic Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) was used to detect different behavioral problems in both groups. Case group children were followed up and reassessed again by CBCL 3 months later after cochlear implantation.
Results:
There were highly significant differences regarding total scores of internalizing and externalizing domains of empirically based CBCL between the control group and the case group after cochlear implants (p=0.001). There were non-significant differences in children within case group (pre- and post-cochlear implantation) regarding emotional and behavioral problems on both empirically based and Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-based CBCL.
Conclusion
For better results, it is necessary to include a specialist of psychosomatic medicine in the cochlear rehabilitation teamwork.
2.Efficacy of Cerebellar Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation in Treating Essential Tremor: A Randomized, Sham-Controlled Trial
Ahmad Farag Ibrahim EL-ADAWY ; Mohamed Al-Bahay M. G. REDA ; Ali Mahmoud AHMED ; Mohamed Hamed RASHAD ; Mohamed Ahmed ZAKI ; Mohie-eldin Tharwat MOHAMED ; Mohammad Ali Saeed HASSAN ; Mohammad Fathi ABDULSALAM ; Abdelmonem M HASSAN ; Ahmed Fathy MOHAMED ; Abdel-Ghaffar Ismail FAYED ; Mostafa MESHREF ; Fathy Mahmoud MANSOUR ; Ahmed E. SARHAN ; Ahmed Hassan ELSHESHINY ; Elsayed ABED
Journal of Clinical Neurology 2024;20(4):378-384
Background:
and Purpose Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) of the cerebellar hemisphere represents a new option in treating essential tremor (ET) patients. We aimed to determine the efficacy of cerebellar rTMS in treating ET using different protocols regarding the number of sessions, exposure duration, and follow-up duration.
Methods:
A randomized sham-controlled trial was conducted, in which 45 recruit patients were randomly allocated to 2 groups. The first (active group) comprised 23 patients who were exposed to 12 sessions of active rTMS with 900 pulses of 1-Hz rTMS at 90% of the resting motor threshold daily on each side of the cerebellar hemispheres over 4 weeks. The second group (sham group) comprised 22 patients who were exposed to 12 sessions of sham rTMS. Both groups were reassessed at baseline and after 1 day, 1 month, 2 months, and 3 months using the Fahn-Tolosa-Marin tremor-rating scale (FTM).
Results:
Demographic characteristics did no differ between the two groups. There were significant reductions both in FTM subscores A and B and in the FTM total score in the active-rTMS group during the period of assessment and after 3 months (p=0.031 and 0.011, respectively).However, subscore C did not change significantly from baseline when assessed at 2 and 3 months (p=0.073 and 0.236, respectively). Furthermore, the global assessment score was significantly higher in the active-rTMS group (p>0.001).
Conclusions
Low-frequency rTMS over the cerebellar cortex for 1 month showed relative safety and long-lasting efficacy in patients with ET. Further large-sample clinical trials are needed that include different sites of stimulation and longer follow-ups.