[Psychoeducation for overweight patients with psychiatric disorders: The Wellness program developed in Quebec].

Objectives: Patients with severe psychiatric disorders such as psychosis, bipolar disorder, and depression have a greater risk of suffering from being overweight or from obesity than the general population. This can in part be explained by medication-induced weight gain related to the use of antipsychotics, antidepressants and mood stabilizers. Fortunately, non-pharmacological interventions targeting modifications in lifestyle behaviors exist to help patients deal with weight gain and weight management.

[Efficacy of behavioural lifestyle interventions for weight management of psychiatric patients].

Significant weight gain is common in patients with psychiatric disorders taking antipsychotics, mood stabilisers and/or antidepressants. Psychiatric patients are at a higher risk of suffering from obesity and from the metabolic syndrome than the general population. One promising alternative to limiting weight gain involves modifying lifestyle behaviors.

Neuroleptic dosing and neuroleptic plasma levels in schizophrenia: determining the optimal regimen.

Objective: To recommend dose range and therapeutic plasma concentration for several neuroleptics, and to discuss conditions under which neuroleptic plasma levels are clinically useful.

Method: Neuroleptic drug therapy is a major component of the acute and maintenance treatment of schizophrenia. However, there is no consensus on what constitutes an appropriate or optimal dose of antipsychotic drug in individual patients.

Reliability of best-estimate diagnosis in genetic linkage studies of major psychoses: results from the Quebec pedigree studies.

Objective: Diagnostic classification and reliability are critical in genetic linkage studies of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. To establish an optimal diagnostic procedure, the authors drew 13 methodological elements from 38 major linkage studies and workshop reports. They determined reliability for a consensus best-estimate diagnostic method based on these 13 features.