O objetivo deste artigo é indicar aspectos que configuram o processo de envelhecimento na sociedade atual, especificamente as diferentes conceituações utilizadas para definir este processo em relação aos aspectos cronológicos, biológicos, psicológicos e sociais envolvidos. A partir desta revisão da literatura, conclui-se que a idade cronológica não é a única forma de mensurar o processo de envelhecimento, sendo este uma interação de fatores complexos que apresentam uma influência variável sobre o indivíduo e que podem contribuir para a variação das intempéries da passagem do tempo. Biologicamente, os eventos ocorrem ao longo de certo período, mas não necessariamente o tempo é a causa destes eventos.

Aims: To compare the difference in the quality of life between temporomandibular disorders (TMD) patients and non-TMD subjects diagnosed with the Research Diagnostic Criteria for Temporomandibular Disorders (RDC/TMD) or the Diagnostic Criteria for Temporomandibular Disorders (DC/TMD). Methods: Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online (MEDLINE), Excerpta Medica database (EMBASE) and Latin American and Caribbean Health Sciences Literature (LILACS) databases were searched in studies published in English and Portuguese. The search was performed by two independent reviewers in duplicate. A manual search and the gray literature were also included. The inclusion criteria were clinical studies that used the RDC/TMD axis I and quality of life with standard questionnaires in young and middle-aged adult population (18–55 years). The data were analyzed quantitatively by combining the results in a meta-analysis using forest plots. The measure of effect used was the standardized mean difference (SMD) in depression levels. The Newcastle–Ottawa Scale (NOS) was used to evaluate the quality of the studies. The publication bias was assessed by funnel plots. The initial search included 806 articles without duplications. Results: Twenty-four articles were included in the final systematic review. Of these, 9 were included in the meta-analysis, where it was shown a statistically significant in all axis I groups: (a) global TMD—groups I, II and III combined, N = 3829, SMD (95% CI) = 1.06 (0.65–1.51), p = 0.000; (b) group I—muscle disorders, N = 3,056, SMD (95% CI) = 0.82 (0.45–1.18), p = 0.000; (c) group II—disc displacements, N = 3,184, SMD (95% CI) = 0.59 (0.26–0.91), p = 0.000; and (d) group III—arthralgia/arthritis/arthrosis, N = 2781, SMD (95% CI) = 0.98 (0.59–1.36), p = 0.000. When compared to controls. Conclusions: Quality of life is affected in all axis I TMD patients, especially in groups I and III with higher pain intensity and disability as compared to group II.

This systematic review sought to assess the impact of child maltreatment on cognitive functioning. Seventeen papers from Medline, PsycINFO, Embase and Amed (1995-2011) databases were analyzed based on inclusion/exclusion criteria. The studies have shown that maltreatment during childhood has deleterious effects on cognitive functioning. Overall, adults or children/teenagers exposed to abuse during childhood performed poorly on tasks meant to assess verbal episodic memory, working memory, attention, and executive functions. We conclude that child maltreatment is a risk factor for short and long-term development due to potential adverse effects on cognitive functioning

Background: The aim of this study was to investigate differences in executive functions between adolescents exposed to different forms of single‐ and multitype childhood maltreatment. Method: The sample was composed of 83 adolescents, divided into three groups: single‐type maltreatment ( n = 24), multitype maltreatment ( n = 19), and no history of maltreatment ( n = 40), matched for education and sex. Results: The results showed that teenagers who suffered a single type of childhood maltreatment performed worse than the other two groups on tasks of cognitive flexibility and visual processing speed. Individuals who suffered multitype maltreatment had worse initiation and lower verbal processing speed than the other two groups. Conclusions: Childhood maltreatment may have a significant impact on executive functioning in adolescence.

This study aims to investigate the influence of sociodemographic characteristics on the performance of older people on two tasks of verbal fluency and provide normative data for a Brazilian population of healthy elderly individuals with different educational levels. The initial sample included 521 individuals aged from 60 years, participating in the Program Family Health Strategy. Participants who had scores suggestive of cognitive decline on the Mini-Mental State Examination, depressive symptoms in Geriatric Depression Scale and self-reported neurological or psychiatric disorders were excluded. The final sample consisted of 218 participants in phonemic verbal fluency task (letters F, A and S) and 265 participants for semantic verbal fluency task (animals). The performance in both tests was associated with age and education, but not with sex. Still, the education variable was shown to have a greater impact on scores in phonemic and semantic tests than age in both forms of evocation. The results of this study suggest the importance of providing normative data for elderly Brazilians appropriate to age and education on verbal fluency tasks.