Progress in Clinical Neuropsychology and Neurorehabilitation

A special issue of Healthcare (ISSN 2227-9032). This special issue belongs to the section "Chronic Care".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 November 2025 | Viewed by 408

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
School of Medicine, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 541 24 Thessaloniki, Greece
Interests: neuropsychology; geropsychology; cognitive psychology; quantitative and qualitative methodologies
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

According to the National Academy of Neuropsychology (NAN), clinical neuropsychology uses our current knowledge of the brain–behavior relationship ‘in the assessment, diagnosis, treatment, and/or rehabilitation of patients across the lifespan with neurological, medical, neurodevelopmental and psychiatric conditions, as well as other cognitive and learning disorders’. A plethora of patients suffering from disorders such as stroke, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), multiple sclerosis (MS), epilepsy, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) can benefit from neurorehabilitation, and new approaches and protocols are being proposed, tested and used every day. Despite major advances in the methods and findings in this field in recent years, different neurorehabilitation theories, methods and techniques open new discussions over the methodologies of these interventions, as well as their results in different cultural contexts.

We are pleased to invite you to provide clinicians and researchers with evidence-based recommendations regarding relevant interventions across the lifespan and a range of disorders, as well as on outcome measures which should be used in rehabilitation. In addition, review articles describing the current state of the art in neurorehabilation and cross-cultural replication studies are welcome.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

  • Systematic reviews and meta-analyses of existing interventions and assessment tools in neurorehabilitation;
  • New empirical research;
  • Psychometric studies measuring the psychometric characteristics of assessment tools;
  • Comparative studies of different assessment tools measuring the same area;
  • Cross-cultural studies regarding existing or new interventions and/or findings of replication studies.

I look forward to receiving your contributions.

Yours faithfully,

Dr. Vaitsa Giannouli
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • clinical neuropsychology
  • neurorehabilitation
  • stroke
  • traumatic brain injury (TBI)
  • concussion
  • multiple sclerosis (MS)
  • epilepsy
  • Parkinson’s disease (PD)
  • spasticity
  • spinal cord injuries
  • movement disorders
  • neuromuscular diseases
  • amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)
  • neurological disorders
  • Alzheimer’s disease (AD)
  • children
  • older patients

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

21 pages, 327 KiB  
Article
Non-Motor Symptoms and Health-Related Quality of Life in Patients with Isolated Dystonia: A Cross-Sectional Study
by Ovidiu Lucian Băjenaru, Lidia Băjenaru, Alexandru Balog, Alexandru Constantinescu, Octavian Andronic and Cătălina Raluca Nuță
Healthcare 2025, 13(15), 1824; https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare13151824 (registering DOI) - 26 Jul 2025
Viewed by 65
Abstract
Background/Objectives: Dystonia, traditionally regarded as a purely motor disorder, is now increasingly recognized as involving clinically significant non-motor symptoms (NMSs) that can adversely affect patients’ health-related quality of life (HRQoL). This study aimed to assess HRQoL in Romanian patients with isolated dystonia and [...] Read more.
Background/Objectives: Dystonia, traditionally regarded as a purely motor disorder, is now increasingly recognized as involving clinically significant non-motor symptoms (NMSs) that can adversely affect patients’ health-related quality of life (HRQoL). This study aimed to assess HRQoL in Romanian patients with isolated dystonia and to evaluate the impact of two key NMSs, depression and cognitive impairment, on their HRQoL. We hypothesized that depression would have a greater adverse effect on HRQoL than cognitive impairment. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted involving 65 adult Romanian patients with isolated dystonia. HRQoL was measured using the Short Form-36 Health Survey (SF-36), including the physical component summary (PCS) and mental component summary (MCS). Depressive symptoms were assessed using the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), and cognitive impairment was assessed using the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA). Descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and parametric and non-parametric tests were used. Multiple regression analysis was employed to evaluate associations between NMS and HRQoL. Results: The mean (SD) age was 56.6 (14.3) years, and 80% of participants were female. Depression and cognitive function were significantly associated with PCS (0.33 and −0.51, respectively) and MCS (0.26 and −0.78, respectively). Multiple regression analysis showed that the two NMS explained 38% of the variance in PCS and 58% of the variance in MCS. Depression had a greater impact on PCS and MCS than cognitive impairment (−0.47 vs. 0.33 and −0.72 vs. 0.16, respectively). Cognitive impairment (MoCA < 26) was present in 35.4% of patients, while 46.2% had at least mild depressive symptoms (PHQ-9 ≥ 5); 23.1% met criteria for moderate-to-severe depression (PHQ-9 ≥ 10). Depressive symptoms showed strong negative correlations with all SF-36 domains, while cognitive performance correlated modestly. Conclusions: Both depression and cognitive impairment have a significant negative impact on HRQoL in dystonia, with depression having a stronger effect, as we hypothesized. Routine screening for non-motor symptoms is essential to support better clinical outcomes and enhance patients’ quality of life. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Progress in Clinical Neuropsychology and Neurorehabilitation)
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