Psychogenic non-epileptic spells are a form of conversion disorder which is characterized by “seizure like episodes” often misdiagnosed as epilepsy. These are frequently seen in adults with female predominance but occur also in children. The gold standard, for a definitive diagnosis, is inpatient video-EEG monitoring in a specialized epilepsy monitoring unit to capture these episodes. There is ...

William Farr and many other pioneers advocated the systematic collection of data on incapacity from non-fatal disease. The National Insurance Act of 1946 provided for the compulsory insurance of everybody between school-leaving and retirementpensionable age with the exception of married women, and also for payment of sickness benefit; this for the first time made possible the collection of nati...

OBJECTIVES Common mental disorders are associated with impaired functioning and sickness absence. We examine whether sub-clinical as well as clinical psychiatric morbidity predict long spells of sickness absence for both psychiatric and non-psychiatric illness. We also examine whether recent common mental disorders and those present on two occasions have a stronger association with sickness abs...

A 47-year-old woman presented with a 1-year history of spells characterized by slurring of speech, visual blurring, and on 2 occasions, loss of consciousness occurring 2 to 4 hours after meals and lasting 5 to 30 minutes. The spells were unrelated to fasting or physical activity. She also had milder spells of tremulousness, diaphoresis, and weakness occurring initially every other week but prog...

OBJECTIVE Sedation is an important step in the management of patients with hypercyanotic spells associated with tetralogy of Fallot (TOF) to ameliorate and prevent recurrence of cyanosis. This case report illustrates the effectiveness of dexmedetomidine-induced sedation in the management of hypercyanotic spells in a neonate with TOF. DESCRIPTION An 8-day-old term newborn patient with TOF show...

We explore how to measure poverty over time, by focusing on trajectories of poverty rather than poverty at a particular point in time. We consider welfare outcomes over a period in time, consisting of a number of spells. We offer a characterization of desirable properties for measuring poverty across these spells, as well as an explicit discussion of three issues. First, should there be scope f...

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), an increasingly prevalent sleep disorder, has been extensively studied in both clinical and scientific settings. In most cases, the diagnosis of sleep apnea is straightforward with patients having symptoms of snoring, choking or gasping for air while asleep and witnessed apneas. However, sleep apnea is known to present in some unusual ways. We present a case of a ...