The book presents the theoretical underpinnings and major applications of a new Cognitive Language Pedagogy based in Cognitive Linguistics and inspired by modern psycholinguistic, neurolinguistic, ...psychological and didactic research. Cognitive linguistics offers a comprehensive approach to modernizing language teaching in many ways by establishing a paradigm shift rarely seen in language instruction. The book focuses on making accessible and using those insights for the fields of language acquisition and language learning, as well as for their application to the practical teaching of foreign languages and cultures (linguacultures). The book not only builds bridges between disciplines and between theory and practice, it also shows how the most modern language teaching approaches (task-based teaching and learning) can be integrated into an innovative model of a cognitive-based language pedagogy.
The book offers an easy to read introduction on how cognitive linguistics treats and analyses language and how it differs from other approaches to linguistics. Readers are invited to follow an ...inspiring approach to linguistics adressing many of the most pressing issues and challenges in language teaching and learning. Many examples from a large variety of languages illustrate the theoretical underpinnings and make theory come to life.
•There are few global estimates of depression prevalence and severity of depression among ALS patients.•We estimate the overall pooled prevalence of depression is 34% in ALS patients.•We estimate the ...overall pooled prevalence of mild depression is 29% in ALS patients.•We estimate the overall pooled prevalence of moderate depression is 16% in ALS patients.•We estimate the overall pooled prevalence of severe depression is 0.08% in ALS patients.
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) people have a high risk of severe mental disorders, like depression, which impacts their function, quality of life, and mobility. However, there are no estimates of depression based paper published. This study aimed conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis of the prevalence of depression in ALS patients around the world.
PubMed/Medline, Web of science, Scopus, Embase, and Ovid are searched to identify papers that reporting the prevalence of depression. Studies are included in random-effects meta-analyses of the prevalence of depression. Subgroup analyses are performed on the severity of depression, instruments of depression, type of studies, and study regions.
46 eligible studies reported prevalence of depression. The pooled prevalence of depression among ALS people was 34% (27%–41%). According to the severity of depression, mild, moderate, and severe depression were 29%, 16%, and 8%, respectively. For studies using BDI, PHQ, and HADS, the pooled prevalence of depression was 50%, 20%, and 15%, respectively.
ALS people have a high prevalence of depression. The high prevalence of depression causes a reduction of quality of life and mobility. The study identifies a population group at high risk needing special attention in clinical practice.
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disorder affecting primarily the motor system, but in which extra‐motor manifestations are increasingly recognized. The loss of upper and ...lower motor neurons in the motor cortex, the brain stem nuclei and the anterior horn of the spinal cord gives rise to progressive muscle weakness and wasting. ALS often has a focal onset but subsequently spreads to different body regions, where failure of respiratory muscles typically limits survival to 2–5 years after disease onset. In up to 50% of cases, there are extra‐motor manifestations such as changes in behaviour, executive dysfunction and language problems. In 10%–15% of patients, these problems are severe enough to meet the clinical criteria of frontotemporal dementia (FTD). In 10% of ALS patients, the family history suggests an autosomal dominant inheritance pattern. The remaining 90% have no affected family members and are classified as sporadic ALS. The causes of ALS appear to be heterogeneous and are only partially understood. To date, more than 20 genes have been associated with ALS. The most common genetic cause is a hexanucleotide repeat expansion in the C9orf72 gene, responsible for 30%–50% of familial ALS and 7% of sporadic ALS. These expansions are also a frequent cause of frontotemporal dementia, emphasizing the molecular overlap between ALS and FTD. To this day there is no cure or effective treatment for ALS and the cornerstone of treatment remains multidisciplinary care, including nutritional and respiratory support and symptom management. In this review, different aspects of ALS are discussed, including epidemiology, aetiology, pathogenesis, clinical features, differential diagnosis, investigations, treatment and future prospects.
Alterations in RNA metabolism play an important role in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) pathogenesis. The literature has described, so far, a small number of long non coding RNAs (lncRNAs) ...associated to ALS demonstrating that how there is still much to do to identify and understand their role in ALS. This class of RNAs may offer numerous starting points for new investigations about pathogenic mechanism involved in ALS disease. In this review, we have collected all the presented data about lncRNAs and ALS to offer an overview about this class of non-coding RNAs and their possible role in ALS disease.
Improving quality of life (QoL) is central to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) treatment. This Germany-wide, multicenter cross-sectional study analyses the impact of different symptom-specific ...treatments and ALS variants on QoL. Health-related QoL (HRQoL) in 325 ALS patients was assessed using the Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Assessment Questionnaire 5 (ALSAQ-5) and EuroQol Five Dimension Five Level Scale (EQ-5D-5L), together with disease severity (captured by the revised ALS Functional Rating Scale (ALSFRS-R)) and the current care and therapies used by our cohort. At inclusion, the mean ALSAQ-5 total score was 56.93 (max. 100, best = 0) with a better QoL associated with a less severe disease status (β = -1.96 per increase of one point in the ALSFRS-R score,
< 0.001). "Limb-onset" ALS (
ALS) was associated with a better QoL than "bulbar-onset" ALS (
ALS) (mean ALSAQ-5 total score 55.46 versus 60.99,
= 0.040). Moreover, with the ALSFRS-R as a covariate, using a mobility aid (β = -7.60,
= 0.001), being tracheostomized (β = -14.80,
= 0.004) and using non-invasive ventilation (β = -5.71,
= 0.030) were associated with an improved QoL, compared to those at the same disease stage who did not use these aids. In contrast, antidepressant intake (β = 5.95,
= 0.007), and increasing age (β = 0.18,
= 0.023) were predictors of worse QoL. Our results showed that the ALSAQ-5 was better-suited for ALS patients than the EQ-5D-5L. Further, the early and symptom-specific clinical management and supply of assistive devices can significantly improve the individual HRQoL of ALS patients. Appropriate QoL questionnaires are needed to monitor the impact of treatment to provide the best possible and individualized care.
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