Leonardo Lopiano

TL;DR: The effects of opposing verbal suggestions on experimental ischemic arm pain in healthy volunteers and on motor performance in Parkinsonian patients are analyzed and found that verbally induced expectations of analgesia/hyperalgesia and motor improvement/worsening antagonized completely the effects of a conditioning procedure.

TL;DR: Experimental evidence indicates that negative verbal suggestions induce anticipatory anxiety about the impending pain increase, and this verbally-induced anxiety triggers the activation of cholecystokinin which, in turn, facilitates pain transmission, and underscores the important role of cognition in the therapeutic outcome.

TL;DR: The main finding is that when the patient is completely unaware that a treatment is being given, the treatment is less effective than when it is given overtly in accordance with routine medical practice.

TL;DR: It is confirmed that ATP13A2 homozygous mutations are associated with human parkinsonism, and the associated genotypic and clinical spectrum is expanded, by describing a homozygOUS missense mutation in this gene in a patient with a phenotype milder than that initially associated with ATP 13A2 mutations (Kufor-Rakeb syndrome).

TL;DR: PINK1 homozygous mutations are a relevant cause of disease among Italian sporadic patients with early-onset parkinsonism, and this study suggests that, at least in some patients, these mutations are disease causing, in combination with additional, still unknown factors.