Michael Okun

Dec 9, 2024 | jwatch.org | Michael Okun

Michael S. Okun, MD, reviewing Psychotherapy is a meaningful acute treatment for Parkinson depression. Psychotherapy is a first-line psychological approach to treat depression in Parkinson disease (PD), but few studies have been conducted on the topic. This randomized trial included patients with stages I to III PD and comorbid depressive disorder. Patients were assigned to 12 sessions of interpersonal psychotherapy (n=32) or supportive therapy (n=31).

Dec 9, 2024 | jwatch.org | Michael Okun

Dec 6, 2024 | jwatch.org | Michael Okun

Michael S. Okun, MD, reviewing An assay that measures the ratio between phosphorylated and nonphosphorylated tau stood out. Plasma phosphorylated-tau 217 (p-tau217) has quickly become the single most useful blood-based biomarker to reliably detect Alzheimer disease. To determine which assay is the most accurate, investigators compared performance of five plasma p-tau217 tests on measures of amyloid-β (Aβ) on positron emission tomography (PET), tau-PET, and cognition.

Sep 16, 2024 | jamanetwork.com | James Giordano |Michael Okun

The Nontrivial Ethics of Brain Biopsies for Research Deep brain stimulation (DBS) conducted for routine clinical care has opened an opportunity to explore the possible collection of a brain biopsy for research purposes. Attention has recently been drawn to brain biopsies collected purely for investigative purposes, without serving any immediate diagnostic purpose or eliciting any therapeutic benefit.

Sep 9, 2024 | jwatch.org | Michael Okun