Cognitive decline in the middle-aged after surgery and anaesthesia: results from the Wisconsin Registry for Alzheimer's Prevention cohort

Surgery and anaesthesia might affect cognition in middle-aged people without existing cognitive dysfunction. We measured memory and executive function in 964 participants, mean age 54 years, and again four years later, by when 312 participants had had surgery and 652 participants had not. Surgery between tests was associated with a decline in immediate memory by one point (out of a maximum of 30), p = 0.013: memory became abnormal in 77 out of 670 participants with initially normal memory, 21 out of 114 (18%) of whom had had surgery compared with 56 out of 556 (10%) of those who had not, p = 0.02. The number of operations was associated with a reduction in immediate memory on retesting, beta coefficient (SE) 0.08 (0.03), p = 0.012. Working memory decline was also associated with longer cumulative operations, beta coefficient (SE) -0.01 (0.00), p = 0.028. A reduction in cognitive speed and flexibility was associated with worse ASA physical status, beta coefficient (SE) 0.55 (0.22) and 0.37 (0.17) for ASA 1 and 2 vs. 3, p = 0.035. However, a decline in working memory was associated with better ASA physical status, beta coefficient (SE) -0.48 (0.21) for ASA 1 vs. 3, p = 0.01.

Hormone effects on fMRI and cognitive measures of encoding: importance of hormone preparation

We compared fMRI and cognitive data from nine hormone therapy (HT)-naive women with data from women exposed to either opposed conjugated equine estrogens (CEE) (n = 10) or opposed estradiol (n = 4). Exposure to either form of HT was associated with healthier fMRI response; however, CEE-exposed women exhibited poorer memory performance than either HT-naive or estradiol-exposed subjects. These preliminary findings emphasize the need to characterize differential neural effects of various HTs.

A model alcohol and other drug use curriculum for pediatric residents

While alcohol and other drug (AOD) use is a major health risk for adolescents in the United States, there is a paucity of AOD training for pediatric residents. In 1991-92, the University of Wisconsin Medical School developed an experiential, community-based AOD curriculum for pediatrics residents. The curriculum included resident participation in a community-based AOD adolescent assessment and intervention program, interactive didactic sessions, role-playing practice, and interviewing skills sessions. The residents who participated in the curriculum (n = 25) were compared with a control group (n = 19). Evaluation included pre- and post-curriculum written tests, objective structured clinical examinations, and residents' ratings of the curriculum components. The residents who participated showed significant gains in AOD knowledge, utilization of screening techniques, and clinical management skills as compared with the controls. The residents gave positive ratings to all curriculum components. This well-received curriculum can serve as a national model both for AOD education in pediatrics and for curriculum development in other areas of adolescent health-risk-taking.