[New AWMF guidelines for medicolegal assessment of mental and psychosomatic disorders]. / Neue AWMF-Leitlinie zur Begutachtung psychischer und psychosomatischer Störungen.

The guidelines, which were first published in 2012, were fundamentally revised by a panel of experts from 9 medical and psychological societies and published on the website of the Association of the Scientific Medical Societies in Germany in December 2019 (AWMF registration number 051-029). The guidelines contribute to interdisciplinary quality assurance when assessing applicants for insurance or other compensation benefits who claim psychological or psychosomatic illnesses with resulting functional disorders. The guidelines are divided into 3 separate parts: part I describes specific aspects of the expert examination, part II describes the criteria for assessing occupational performance capacity in terms of different legal fields and part III deals with questions of causality in cases of claimed posttraumatic mental disorders.

Position paper: ability to drive in cerebrovascular diseases.

The regulations for fitness to drive after a cerebrovascular accident in the German Driving License Regulations (FeV) and the German Evaluation Guidelines for Driving Ability (BGL). are not up to date with the current medical knowledge and not consistent with regulations regarding cardiovascular diseases. This position paper presented by six medical and neuropsychological societies in Germany provides a guideline for the assessment of driving ability after diagnosis of a cerebrovascular disease and addresses three major questions: If there is a functional limitation, how can it be compensated for? What is the risk of sudden loss of control while driving in the future? Are there behavioral or personality changes or cognitive deficiencies interfering with safety while driving? Recommendations for the assessment of driving ability in different cerebrovascular diseases are presented. This article is a translation of the position paper published in Nervenarzt: Marx, P., Hamann, G.F., Busse, O. et al. Nervenarzt 90(4): 388-398.

[Clinical tests for symptom validity assessment]. / Klinische Tests zur Beschwerdenvalidierung.

Assessing symptom validity is essential both in the clinical and medicolegal contexts. If neurological symptoms are demonstrated and/or a patient complains of pain that is not or cannot be fully explained by an underlying disease, it is necessary to recognize reliably a possible psychological cause in order to avoid further unnecessary examinations. In the medicolegal context, malingering or exaggeration of complaints for obtaining financial benefit is to be differentiated in a further step. The present overview contains a summary of clinical observations and tests for neurologists and psychiatrists used for symptom validity assessment of sensorimotor symptoms, tremor, gait, equilibrium and visual disturbances as well as pain.

[Medicolegal Assessment of Psychic Sequelae after Minor Traumatic Events]. / Begutachtung psychischer Störungen nach minderschweren Traumen.

The majority of medicolegal assessments in claimed psychic sequelae after accidents concerns minor traumatic events. In this case, the focus is on three questions: Was the event appropriate to cause a traumatic disturbance according to current psychiatric classification systems (especially current DSM-5)? Which psychical or physical initial injury can be proven beyond reasonable doubt ("full proof") according to German law? What is the impact of personality characteristics and competing life events in the development and maintenance of the mental disorder? Causality between mental disorders and minor traumatic events is to be confirmed especially in the case of persistent physical accident sequelae, but attention has to be paid to the differences in the various legal requirements.

Cognitive performance following spontaneous subarachnoid haemorrhage versus other forms of intracranial haemorrhage.

OBJECTIVE: The exact cause of cognitive deficits following intracranial haemorrhage is unclear. This prospective study examines the abilities after spontaneous subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH), intracerebral haemorrhage (ICH) and chronic subdural haematoma (SDH) to elucidate the cognitive outcome. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Ninety-nine patients with SAH (N = 60), ICH (N = 25), and SDH (N = 14) were followed up for an average of 6 and 12 months post-haemorrhage. Cognitive tests were used to examine attention, memory, concentration, and executive function. Following were used for analysis: 1. the percentage of patients falling below the 25th percentile per test, 2. the general development from the first to second test point and 3. the incidence of significant changes between the test points. Significance was established as p ≤ 0.05. RESULTS: All three types of haemorrhage resulted in deficits as concerns abstract language (53%-75%). The processing speed was below the normal levels in more than 70% of the patients tested. The cognitive performance of SAH patients was similar to that of patients with SDH and ICH patients after 6 months. The number of patients with outcomes falling below the 25th percentile (to some extent more than 75% in patients post-SAH) is high in all patient groups and mostly decreases over the course. Nevertheless, patients with SAH reveal improvements in many more areas than with ICH and SDH (p ≤ 0.006). CONCLUSIONS: The cognitive impairments following SAH, ICH and SDH deficits appear to develop in a similar way regardless of the type of haemorrhage. Cognitive improvement is most pronounced in patients with SAH.

[Radicular low back pain: is there a relationship between the treatment regimen and outcome?]. / Lumbale Radikulopathien--Zusammenhang zwischen Therapieintensität und Behandlungserfolg?

OBJECTIVE: To identify a possible relationship between the non-surgical treatment regimen and outcome. METHODS: In a sample of 170 patients with sciatica due to a herniated disk the intensity of a conservative multimodal inpatient treatment in a neurological department was extracted. The outcome was examined using two prospective cohorts (183 patients). These results were compared with published data from orthopaedic inpatient rehabilitation in Germany. RESULTS: The neurological inpatient treatment regimen was more intense than the orthopaedic inpatient rehabilitation, especially with regard to physiotherapy. In contrast, physical therapy was applied more often in orthopaedic rehabilitation. A better short-term outcome with regard to pain intensity was found after multimodal conservative treatment. CONCLUSIONS: Further studies are needed to compare different treatment regimens in patients with sciatica.

Teleneurology to improve stroke care in rural areas: The Telemedicine in Stroke in Swabia (TESS) Project.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Assessing both stroke patients and their CT scans by using a conventional videoconference system offers an interesting opportunity to improve stroke care in rural areas. However, until now there have been no studies to suggest whether this method is feasible in routine stroke management. METHODS: Seven rural hospitals in the southern part of Germany in Swabia were connected to the stroke unit of Günzburg with the use of a videoconference link (Telemedicine in Stroke in Swabia [TESS] Project). The local physicians are free to present every admitted stroke patient to the Günzburg stroke expert, who can assess the clinical status and CT images, thereafter giving therapeutic recommendations. All teleconsultations are rated concerning transmission quality and relevance of telemedicine for stroke management. RESULTS: A total of 153 stroke patients were examined by teleconsultation. Mean age was 67.5 years. Eighty-seven patients had suffered an ischemic stroke, 9 had an intracerebral hemorrhage, and 17 suffered a transient ischemic attack. Forty patients were revealed to have a diagnosis other than stroke. Duration of teleconsultation was 15 minutes on average. User satisfaction was good concerning imaging and audio quality, and patient satisfaction was very good or good in all cases. Relevant contributions could be made in >75% of the cases concerning diagnostic workup, CT assessment, and therapeutic recommendations. CONCLUSIONS: Teleconsultation using a videoconference system seems to be a feasible and promising method to improve stroke care in rural areas where management in a stroke unit is hindered by long transportation distances.

[Radicular Low Back Pain: Evaluation of Conservative Multimodal Treatment] / Evaluation der konservativ-multimodalen Therapie lumbaler radikulärer Schmerzsyndrome.

OBJECTIVE: In this summary, the preliminary results of studies evaluating medical therapy of radicular low back pain are reported. METHODS: In two prospective cohorts (183 patients) the conservative multimodal inpatient treatment was examined, using the newly developed "Radicular Low Back Pain Score" for the standardized measurement of the radiculopathy. In another sample of 116 patients the preceeding outpatient treatment was documented. RESULTS: A significant short-term improvement with regard to the pain intensity and the radiculopathy was observed after approximately two weeks of therapy. The preceeding outpatient treatment did not comply with recent guidelines. Moreover, it did not influence the outcome of the multimodal inpatient therapy. CONCLUSIONS: The "Radicular Low Back Pain Score" seems to be a suitable instrument for measuring therapy effectiveness. Multimodal medical treatment is an important treatment approach for sciatica, especially after failed outpatient therapy.

[Evaluation of conservative combined modality therapy of lumbar radicular pain syndrome]. / Evaluation der konservativ-multimodalen Therapie lumbaler radikulärer Schmerzsyndrome.

OBJECTIVE: In this summary, the preliminary results of studies evaluating medical therapy of radicular low back pain are reported. METHODS: In two prospective cohorts (183 patients) the conservative multimodal inpatient treatment was examined, using the newly developed "Radicular Low Back Pain Score" for the standardized measurement of the radiculopathy. In another sample of 116 patients the preceding outpatient treatment was documented. RESULTS: A significant short-term improvement with regard to the pain intensity and the radiculopathy was observed after approximately two weeks of therapy. The preceding outpatient treatment did not comply with recent guidelines. Moreover, it did not influence the outcome of the multimodal inpatient therapy. CONCLUSIONS: The "Radicular Low Back Pain Score" seems to be a suitable instrument for measuring therapy effectiveness. Multimodal medical treatment is an important treatment approach for sciatica, especially after failed outpatient therapy.