[Between deontology and ethics, does the institution become respectable?].

Deontology draws one's inspiration from Ethics. From this occurrence it seems important to avoid confusion between the first and the second. Psychiatry belongs truly to medical training.

Is phosphodiesterase inhibition a new mechanism of antidepressant action? A double blind double-dummy study between rolipram and desipramine in hospitalized major and/or endogenous depressives.

Unlike conventional antidepressants, rolipram (a new approach in the treatment of depression) stimulates both the presynaptic and the postsynaptic component of monoaminergic transmission. Several double blind trials are under way to assess the clinical efficacy and safety of this compound. The present study was a randomized, 4-week interindividual double blind double-dummy comparison with desipramine in inpatients with major (DSM-III) and/or endogenous (ICD-9) depressions.

[Preliminary results of a double-blind study between rolipram and desipramine in hospitalized patients with major depressive symptoms].

Rolipram facilitates the postsynaptic neurotransmission of NA through a completely new mechanism of action, namely, an inhibition of the inactivation of the second messenger (the cyclic AMP) by phosphodiesterase. In the present study, Rolipram is compared to a classical tricyclic antidepressant which facilitates the NA transmission through an inhibition of its presynaptic reuptake: Desipramine. Preliminary results on 12 Rolipram patients vs.

[Novel comparative profile of the clinical activity of antidepressive agents].

In order to develop practical criteria to guide in the selection of antidepressant medication according to depressive symptomatology, we propose a graphical representation of the clinical activity of 24 antidepressants according to a "star" model. Six parameters have been evaluated from 0 to 5 in comparison to reference drugs (rated 5) by 11 independent "blind" psychiatrists expert in pharmacotherapy. Three parameters were used as measures of therapeutic activity: antidepressant, psychostimulant, and anxiolytic, with iproniazide 75 mg/d, metamphetamine 15 mg/d, and diazepam 20 mg/d as reference drugs respectively.

[From therapy to teaching and from research to therapy].

Man can sometimes be the subject of experiment in medicine; in psychiatry, there are at least two situations when men, more so, a patient occupies legitimate the function of "experimental object". First the problem of clinical psychopharmacology is considered showing its necessity and legitimacy; one emphasizes the advantages and warrentee that the hospital is providing. Ethical regulations are discussed in relation to this practice and a sterilyzind formalism could be damageable as well as the ambiguity of the notion of informed conscript.

Time-blind videotaped evaluation of injectable diazepam, lorazepam and placebo.

Eighteen inpatients suffering from a severe anxiety received in double-blind and crossover conditions iv and im injections of 10 mg diazepam, 5 mg lorazepam or saline t.i.d.

[On anxiety and anguish (author's transl)].

Psychopharmacology has confirmed psychiatry as a medical science; methodological rigor of the exact sciences is essential to psychopharmacological research. It does not however question speculative thought which remains one of the strong sources of psychiatry. The identification of new drugs with their elective properties and their unexpected action on psychopathology imposes a reappraisal of psychiatric concepts.