Dementia

Conflicting information exists on the relationship between physical activity and cognitive impairment. Etgen and colleagues report that moderate or high physical activity, when compared with no physical activity, significantly reduces the risk of incident cognitive impairment in elderly people after a 2 year follow-up period. The results of this large, population-based, prospective cohort study provide convincing evidence that making relatively simple lifestyle changes can help protect cognitive functions later in life.

Migraine

Triptans are commonly used to treat migraine, but limited information exists on the safety of these drugs during pregnancy. In a large cohort study of 69,929 pregnant women Nezvalová-Henriksen et al.. have now shown that triptan therapy is associated with a slight increase in the risk of atonic uterus and hemorrhage when taken in the second and/or third trimester. More reassuringly, however, the researchers report that triptan therapy during pregnancy is not associated with an increased risk of congenital malformations.

Movement disorders

In a case–control study Fabbrini and colleagues have found that psychiatric disorders are common in patients with primary focal dystonias. In particular, depressive symptoms were more prevalent in patients with cervical dystonia and blepharospasm than in healthy controls. Furthermore, the psychiatric disorders—most frequently depression—were apparent in ≈69% of the patients before the onset of dystonia, indicating that the psychiatric symptoms are not necessarily a consequence of living with the condition.

Pain

Complex regional pain syndrome can be a difficult condition to treat, especially if treatment is not administered early in the disease process. In a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover trial, Goebel et al. have shown that low-dose intravenous immunoglobulin treatment can markedly reduce the pain associated with this condition, with no serious adverse events being reported.