[Introduction - Mental health has crucial role in our life. Cognitive changes or decline can lead to many difficulties in daily routine of older people (e.g. organization of daily activities), which can, consequently, influence their well-being. Therefore it is an important question, which cognitive abilities are affected by age-related decline. Methods - In our study we aimed to investigate the changes of cognitive abilities in healthy older adults between 61 and 85 years of age compared to the performance of younger adults. Digit span, counting span, listening span, letter fluency, semantic fluency and action fluency tests were used to assess cognitive abilities, namely working memory and executive functions. Results - The results showed that younger adults performed significantly better in all tests than older adults. Importantly, the performance of older adults was better on tests requiring less complex mental computations (e.g. digit span test) than on more complex tests where both storing and mani-pulating information was required (e.g., counting span test). We also showed that within the older age group, cognitive functions’ decline was linearly associated with increasing age. Conclusion - The present study used several, well-established neuropsychological tests to map the changes of working memory and executive functions in healthy older adults between 61 and 85 years of age compared to younger adults. Our findings can contribute to the development of prevention programs aimed at improving the quality of life of older adults and preventing age-related cognitive decline.]

Background and purpose - There is a lack of data on the impact on health related quality of life of peripheral neuropathic pain in Hungary. The main aims of the study were to assess the health related quality of life of nondiabetic PeNP patients identified in general practices through screening, and to assess the relationship between condition specific pain scores and health state utilities. Methods - Non-diabetic patients aged ≥30 years were recruited in 10 general practices in Hungary. At first, patients filled in the PainDETECT Questionnaire (PD-Q) and those who have achieved ≥13 PD-Q score (unclear or possible neuropathic pain) were further assessed by the DN4 questionnaire. Patients with PD-Q score >18 or DN4 score ≥4 were considered to have PeNP and they completed the EQ-5D health questionnaire. Results - Among the 111 patients identified as non-diabetic PeNP patients the mean age was 62 (SD=14) years, 69% were women. Average EQ-5D score was 44% lower than the gender and age matched Hungarian norm (0.42 vs. 0.75, p<0.001) and it worsened with increasing pain intensity. The pain/discomfort and anxiety/depression were the most affected EQ-5D dimensions. Strong relationship was demonstrated between the PD-Q and EQ- 5D score. Most of the PeNP patients (86%) were undiagnosed. Conclusions - Non-diabetic PeNP pain has a huge negative impact on health related quality of life. Although PeNP is a serious chronic condition, the disease burden is seriously underestimated, both on the level of individuals and society, due to the fact that patients are rarely identified.

[Alzheimer’s disease is a new endemic of the 21st century, which is going to become the biggest health and social problem of the ageing societies in the next few decades. Significant discoveries have been made by structural and functional imaging and biochemical (especially CSF) and genetic tests regarding the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease. The modern diagnostic results were recently incorporated into the diagnostic criteria. This review summarises these diagnostic results.]

[Effective therapy for lung cancer is yet unknown and the role of prevention has continuously increased. In practice, primary prevention of lung cancer means the reduction of smoking either by cessation or by patient education. Screening for lung cancer, considered as a secondary prevention measure, has long been debated. The previously negative attitude for screening has slowly changed in the past years. New studies have been organised recently to make screening more effective. In high risk groups, helical CT-scans with low dose X-ray exposure are preferred and the effectivity of sputum citology completed with immunocytochemical tests is under investigation. Determining the risk group, we focus on age, smoking history, airway obstruction and certain tumour markers. With the help of traditional chest X-rays approximately one third of new cases of lung cancer are discovered in Hungary. Our reasonable target is to identify 60-70% of the new NSCLC cases by risk group screening (age>40 years, smoking>20 P.Y., decrease of FEV1>15%, family lung cancer history and previous asbestos exposure) and by organising population screening more effectively.]

[INTRODUCTION - Interferon therapy is an effective treatment of several oncological, hematological and viral diseases but it can precipitate serious side effects too. Among others the most frequent are the psychiatric symptoms. These symptoms are also the most frequent reasons of non-compliance and early cessation of treatment which can be avoided with rapid recognition and adequate treatment. Therefore, the early recognition of the psychiatric symptoms is of high importance. METHODS AND RESULTS - Authors report a self-administered questionnaire developed to screen the most frequent psychiatric symptoms precipitated by interferon treatment. They also present the evaluation method for the questionnaire, which makes the evaluation of the data easier for non-psychiatrist doctors as well. Between September 2004 and July 2005 all interferon treated patients who also had psychiatric consultation filled in the questionnaire. The number of patients was 26. Authors set up a decision-making algorhythm for the evaluation, so the non-psychiatrist doctors were able to judge whether a psychiatric consultation was needed as well as its urgency. With the data of 26 interferon treated patients who all went through a psychiatric consultation during a 10 months period, authors discuss their first experience, going into details in the three false positive and the two false negative cases. CONCLUSION - Authors founded the questionnaire helpful in the clinical practice and recommended the use for doctors working in general practice. They also suggest to carry it further research with more patients to strengthen the results.]