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Twenty patients with Parkinson disease (PD) and twenty normal control subjects (NC) matched on age, sex, education and socio-economic status (SES) were tested for comprehension of four types of relative clauses with complex thematic roles (syntax) and no semantic and pragmatic constraints (reversible) in a sentence-picture matching task. The results show a clear language impairment for PD patients compared to NC. Additional evidence from testing school children in grade 1 (G1) and grade 6 (G6) indicates that G1 children perform similar to PD patients and G6 children perform as high as NC. The overall picture of the findings suggests: (1) PD patients process sentences with complex thematic roles and semantic reversibility on a heuristic and not on an algorithmic basis, a type of behavior assumed to be associated with frontal lobe dysfunction; (2) PD patients display some patterns of language behavior similar to those observed in aphasics. Similarities in language behavior between PD patients and G1 children are discussed with regard to the "regression hypothesis" (Jacobson, 1968).

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Pharmacological data and early clinical experience have suggested that the calcium entry blocker flunarizine may be a valuable asset in the prophylaxis of migraine. This was supported by a study in twenty patients with classical migraine who were, after a drug-free running-in phase, orally treated with either placebo or flunarizine (10 mg at night) for three to four months. Flunarizine significantly reduced the frequency, duration and severity of the migraine attacks. A corrected migraine index, based on these three variables, was reduced by 82% in the drug group but increased by 66% in the control patients. Only one patient did not clearly benefit from flunarizine, and the response in another illustrated that flunarizine has to be given for at least four months before its efficacy can be judged in some cases. No side effects occurred.

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