Articles related to NEUROLOGICAL DISORDERS

This brief editorial introduces a series of articles describing the medical use of hallucinogens, ketamine, marijuana, and other agents — including the legal and ethical perspectives — in the treatment of various neurologic and psychiatric disorders.

Pregnant women who filled prescriptions for bupropion, citalopram, escitalopram, fluoxetine, or sertraline during pregnancy (antidepressant-exposed cohort) and pregnant women who did not fill an antidepressant prescription within 90 days of the start of their pregnancy through delivery (control group) were the subjects of the study conducted by researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital in the United States. The main finding concerned the frequency of ADHD, autism spectrum disorder (ASD), behavioral disorder, developmental coordination disorder, developmental speech or language disorder, intellectual disability, any NDDs, and specific learning disorders among the children of the women in the study.

Basimglurant is a highly selective, potent, and cell-penetrant negative allosteric modulator of metabotropic glutamate receptor 5 (mGluR5). Based on the LibraTN trial — a 24-week, prospective, double-blind, randomized-withdrawal, placebo-controlled study of basimglurant for trigeminal neuralgia, FDA has granted the molecule Fast Track designation.

Some studies in children have reported a relationship between antidepressant use in pregnancy and neurodevelopment disorders after birth. In this analysis of 145,702 antidepressant-exposed and 3,032,745 unexposed pregnancies, crude results suggested up to a doubling in risk of neurodevelopmental outcomes. Significantly, however, no association was observed after balancing for confounding variables.

Neurologic complications of COVID are leading to an increase in demand for both acute and long-term neurologic evaluation and management. Doctors Koralnik, Liotta, and Graham have been investigating the pathogenic mechanisms of acute and long-term COVID-19 and discuss here their guideline on managing neurologic complications of COVID.

Reported neurologic complications of monkeypox include headaches and mood disturbances, and more rarely, encephalitis, transverse myelitis, and seizures. Historically neurologic complications of smallpox include encephalitis, transverse myelitis, and acute disseminated encephalomyelitis among others. Of concern is the possibility of viral persistence and systemic complications in immunocompromised individuals. Monkeypox should be considered when these neurologic symptoms are seen in high-risk populations.