EUROPEAN NEUROLOGICAL REVIEW – VOLUME 13 ISSUE 1 – SUMMER 2018

Welcome to the latest edition of European Neurological Review, which features a diverse range of articles covering a number of therapeutic areas that directly affect neurologists and other practitioners involved in the care of patients with neurological illness. Our expert interviews have become a popular feature of the journal due to their concise assessments of […]

Q. What are the main cognitive changes experienced by patients with MS? The most severe and prevalent cognitive deficit at all stages of the disease is slowed information processing speed.1 This can be thought of as ‘reduced bandwidth’. It means that people with MS find it harder to multitask and are easily distracted. For example, […]

Current estimates suggest that some 9 million people are living with dementia in Europe (EU28) (Alzheimer Europe [AE], 2017, unpublished document). Many of these individuals live at home in the community. However, due to different circumstances, and at different stages of the condition, some people will need or will choose to move to a residential […]

The main questions for a neurologist at the present time are: what are the fundamental lanes of research in clinical neuroscience and what are the ultimate goals of our investigations? Since the primary mission of a clinician is to be of help to patients, a clinical investigator has to keep searching to discover the aetiology […]

Myasthenia gravis (MG) is a rare autoimmune disease that affects around 11–32 people per 100,000.1–3 Because of improved recognition and diagnosis, its incidence is increasing.4,5 The disease can occur at any age but its onset is most common in women before the age of 40 and men after the age of 60.6 Although the number […]

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic autoimmune condition affecting the central nervous system (CNS). The most recent Atlas data estimated that the number of people with MS worldwide was 2.3 million.1 Prevalence rates of the disease range from 2.1 per 100,000 in Sub-Saharan Africa, to greater than 100 per 100,000 in Northern Europe and North […]

In the past decade, a number of novel therapies targeting specific molecules involved in the inflammatory or immune system activation cascades have become available, improving the management of multiple sclerosis (MS).1 However, most new therapies are biological drugs, which need to be injected and are therefore associated with reduced convenience, compliance and injection- or infusion-related […]

These are exciting times in Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD); the first disease-modifying drug for this indication has been approved in the European Union for ambulatory DMD in patients >5 years; other drug treatments are in the pipeline.1–5 These treatments can be most impactful when used early in the disease process and it is therefore imperative […]

Acute pain is defined as an ‘unpleasant, complex, dynamic psychophysiological response to tissue damage, disease or inflammation’,1–3 and often lasts for a short period.1,4 Its biological function is to minimise behaviours that may lead to reduced tissue healing.1,5 When patients are recovering from a surgery, uncontrolled acute post-operative pain often occurs, which can be damaging.1 […]

Neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder Neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD) is an autoimmune inflammatory disease of the central nervous system (CNS) causing severe inflammation and demyelination of the optic nerve (optic neuritis [ON]), the spinal cord (transverse myelitis [TM]) and the brainstem.1,2 There is a dearth of epidemiological data on the prevalence of NMOSD; conclusive data […]