Dr. Susannah Pick (King’s College London, UK) discusses emotional processing in functional neurological disorder, and how further understand of emotional processing deficits may help contribute to a unified explanatory model for FND.

Dr Shelly Coe (Oxford Brookes University, Oxford) discusses a new randomized control trial looking at the use of cocoa for management of fatigue in multiple sclerosis. Read the full paper here: https://jnnp.bmj.com/content/90/5/507

https://jnnp.bmj.com/content/90/5/498

The JNNP recently launched the patient editorial board in an effort to drive more meaningful patient outcomes. One of our newly appointment board members, Sharon Roman (Vancouver Canada) discusses why she believes the patient perspective leads to better healthcare and what the patient partnership looks like at the JNNP. Read Sharon’s editorial here: https://jnnp.bmj.com/content/jnnp/90/4/371.full.pdf

A special edition podcast - based on an essay discussing the value of medical conferences and whether it is time to consider what is gained from these events, and for whom. Emeritus Professor Michael Swash (The Royal London Hospital and Barts and the London School of Medicine) joins Elizabeth Highton to discuss the merits of the medical congress. Read the commentary here: https://jnnp.bmj.com/content/early/2018/10/18/jnnp-2018-319248

Associate Professor Tomas Kalincik (University of Melbourne, Australia) discusses oral immunotherapies, and what we know about the effects of these treatments on patient relapse and disability. Read the full paper here: https://jnnp.bmj.com/content/early/2019/01/12/jnnp-2018-319831

Editor’s Choice: Associate Professor Dr Mario Masellis (University of Toronto) and Assistant Professor Philippe Desmarais (University of Montreal) discuss the complexities of designing trials in frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and how precision medicine might help disentangle this Gordian knot in the future. Read the full paper here: https://jnnp.bmj.com/content/jnnp/early/2018/11/01/jnnp-2018-318603.full.pdf

Professor Ammar Al-Chalabi (King’s College London, London, UK) joins Elizabeth Highton (podcast editor) to discuss motor neurone disease, also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or ALS, a rapidly progressive illness resulting from the degeneration of both upper and lower motor neurons. Studies have shown that age of onset is younger in people with a family history – but it this due to a heightened knowledge of the disease or due to genetics lowering the age of onset? Read the full paper here: https://jnnp.bmj.com/content/jnnp/90/3/268.

We have a good understanding of our risk of developing cancer or heart disease – but what do we know about the risk of developing a common neurological disorder in later-life? Dr. Silvan Licher (Department of Epidemiology, University Medical Center Rotterdam, Netherlands) discusses the lifetime risk of developing dementia, stroke, and Parkinson’s disease, and how we need to better prioritise preventive interventions. Read the full paper here: https://jnnp.bmj.com/content/jnnp/90/2/148.full.pdf

Dr. Michael van Es (University Medical Center Utrecht, Netherlands) examines whether cognitive and behavioural changes can be seen across the motor neurone disease spectrum, and how this helps inform our understanding of these as multidimensional diseases. Read the editorial commentary by Professor Martin Turner here: https://jnnp.bmj.com/content/90/2/122