Some patients with type 1 and type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) present with cognitive dysfunctions. The pathophysiology underlying this complication is not well understood. Type 1 DM has been associated with a decrease in the speed of information processing, psychomotor efficiency, attention, mental flexibility, and visual perception. Longitudinal epidemiological studies of type 1 DM have indicated that chronic hyperglycemia and microvascular disease, rather than repeated severe hypoglycemia, are associated with the pathogenesis of DM-related cognitive dysfunction. However, severe hypoglycemic episodes may contribute to cognitive dysfunction in high-risk patients with DM. Type 2 DM has been associated with memory deficits, decreased psychomotor speed, and reduced frontal lobe/executive function. In type 2 DM, chronic hyperglycemia, long duration of DM, presence of vascular risk factors (e.g., hypertension and obesity), and microvascular and macrovascular complications are associated with the increased risk of developing cognitive dysfunction. The pathophysiology of cognitive dysfunction in individuals with DM include the following: (1) role of hyperglycemia, (2) role of vascular disease, (3) role of hypoglycemia, and (4) role of insulin resistance and amyloid. Recently, some investigators have proposed that type 3 DM is correlated to sporadic Alzheimer's disease. The molecular and biochemical consequences of insulin and insulin-like growth factor resistance in the brain compromise neuronal survival, energy production, gene expression, plasticity, and white matter integrity. If patients claim that their performance is worsening or if they ask about the effects of DM on functioning, screening and assessment are recommended.

Amputation changes the lives of patients and their families. Consequently, the patient must adapt to altered body function and image. During this adaptation process, psychological problems, such as depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder, can occur. The psychological difficulties of patients with amputation are often accepted as normal responses that are often poorly recognized by patients, family members, and their primary physicians. Psychological problems can interfere with rehabilitation and cause additional psychosocial problems. Therefore, their early detection and treatment are important. A multidisciplinary team approach, including mental health professionals, is ideal for comprehensive and biopsychosocial management. Mental health professionals could help patients set realistic goals and use adaptive coping styles. Psychiatric approaches should consider the physical, cognitive, psychological, social, and spiritual functions and social support systems before and after amputation. The abilities and limitations of physical, cognitive, psychological, and social functions should also be considered. To improve the patient's adaptation, psychological interventions such as short-term psychotherapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, mindfulness meditation, biofeedback, and group psychotherapy can be helpful.

Lee YJ, et al. J Korean Med Sci. 2019 Oct;34(42):e287. https://doi.org/10.3346/jkms.2019.34.e287

Objective There have been many biological studies on suicide behaviors of borderline personality disorder (BPD), however few studies have sought to psychoanalytic characteristics including defense mechanisms. Therefore, we investigated psychological, symptomatic, and personality characteristics including defense mechanisms in suicide attempters and non-suicide attempters among patients with BPD.Methods We enrolled 125 patients with BPD. Forty-two patients with a history of one or more suicide attempts formed the suicide attempters group and 83 patients with no such history formed the non-suicide attempters group. We collated the differences in clinical and psychological characteristics between the two groups by using the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised (SCL-90-R), the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2), the Personality Disorder Questionnaire-4+ (PDQ-4+), and the Defense Style Questionnaire (DSQ).Results The suicide attempters group scored higher on the hostility subscale of SCL-90-R. The suicide attempters group also scored higher on the Infrequency, Back Infrequency, Lie, Masculinity-femininity, Paranoia, Psychasthenia, and Schizophrenia scales of the MMPI-2. The incidence of paranoid and antisocial personality disorders, as assessed by the PDQ-4+, was significantly different in both groups. Maladaptive, self-sacrificing defense style, splitting and affiliation on the DSQ were also higher for the suicide attempters group. In the results of the logistic regression analysis, gender, the F(B) and L scales on the MMPI-2, and ‘splitting of other’s image’ defense mechanism on the DSQ were the factors that significantly influenced to suicide attempts.Conclusion These findings suggest that impulsive psychiatric features and maladaptive defense style may be related to suicidal risk in patients with BPD. Therefore, our findings may help clinicians in estimating the risk of suicide in patients with BPD.

Medication alone is not sufficient to treat insomnia. In addition, the side effects of sleep medications themselves cannot be ignored during treatment. Insomnia begins with poor sleep quality and discomfort, but as it continues, patients fall into a vicious circle of insomnia with negative thoughts and dysfunctional and distorted perceptions related to sleep. Mindfulness-based intervention for insomnia corrects these sequential cognitive and behavioral processes. The mindfulness technique basically recognizes all the thoughts, feelings, and experiences that occur to us as they are, nonjudgmentally, and then trains them to return to the senses of our body. In this way, while noticing all the processes of the sequential vicious cycle and training them to return to our bodies (e.g., breathing), mindfulness determines whether we are really sleepy or just fatigued. This mindfulness-based intervention can be a useful nonpharmaceutical intervention for insomnia, and its stability and efficacy has been proven by many studies.

Neuropsychology,dementia,cognition