Schizophrenia: the quest for a minimum sense of identity to ward off delusional disorder.

Objective: This study was designed to analyze the language of patients with schizophrenia exhibiting negative symptoms during a 3-month period.

Method: The computer-assisted ALCESTE method was used to simultaneously analyze the subjects' oral behaviour and speech patterns at various levels.

Results: The tested subjects had very specific speech patterns.

Increased sense of identity in delusional disorders.

Language, which is unique in each subject, can reflect how a patient copes with disease. The method ALCESTE used here made it possible at the same time to analyse the subject's verbal behavior and speech patterns at several levels. The present study was designed to analyse during a 3-mo.

Possible involvement of the dopamine D3 receptor locus in subtypes of bipolar affective disorder.

The dopamine D3 receptor gene is of potential interest in the physiopathology of affective disorder because of its expression pattern in brain structures controlling various aspects of behaviour, cognition and emotions. Moreover, it encodes for a receptor protein that is a target for psychotropic drugs, which turn out to be efficient in the treatment of this disorder. Two polymorphisms have been described at this locus (the Bal I and the Msp I Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphisms) that are useful in genetic studies.

A new approach to discourse analysis in psychiatry, applied to a schizophrenic patient's speech.

Objective: Progress in the science of data analysis and computer technology has led to the development of advanced methods for investigating structure discourse in the psychiatric field, where language constitutes a useful investigative and therapeutic tool. The purpose of this study was to present and use a computer-assisted method of discourse analysis (Alceste-software) to analyse the schizophrenic subject's oral contributions regularly collected for 3 months.

Method: The method used consisted of modelling the main word distribution in spoken recordings pooled together and identifying the repetitive language patterns most frequently used by the speaker.

Season of birth and schizophrenia: sex difference.

1. A statistically significant increased risk of schizophrenia for individuals born in winter has been reported. The increase risk is of the order of 5-15 percent.

Clozapine in the treatment of psychotic refractory depression.

A 40-year-old woman suffering from major depression with psychotic features was unresponsive to conventional therapy. After the administration of a wide range of drug treatments and ECT, she received clozapine. Depressive symptoms improved and psychotic features disappeared.

[Affective disorders, diabetes and carbohydrate metabolism].

In a medical and biological perspective, the authors analyse the relations existing between diabetes mellitus and affective disorders on the basis of clinical, therapeutic, metabolic, neuro-endocrinal and epidemiological arguments. Besides the presentation of an original clinical case, the principal data of literature are detailed and criticized; some orientations of the future research concerning the explaining of these relations are given as well.

Attachment of pneumococcal autolysin to wall teichoic acids, an essential step in enzymatic wall degradation.

High concentrations of choline and phosphorylcholine blocked the adsorption of pneumococcal autolytic enzyme to homologous cell walls and inhibited enzymatic cell wall hydrolysis in a noncompetitive manner. Enzyme adsorption had an absolute requirement for the presence of choline residues in the wall teichoic acid. Other amino alcohols and derivatives such as ethanolamine, monomethylaminoethanolamine , and phosphorylethanolamine had no effect on enzyme adsorption or hydrolytic activity.

[Relation between personality and spastic angina].

The personalities of 60 patients suffering from episodes of retrosternal pain were evaluated by means of psychological tests ( Cattel 's questionnaire and Eysenck's personality inventory) and semi-directive interviews. The patients fell into three groups: group I patients (n = 21) had atheromatous lesions of the coronary arteries detected at angiography; group II patients (n = 19) had normal or subnormal coronary arteries, but angiography demonstrated arterial spasm; group III patients (n = 20) had angiographically normal coronary arteries without spasm. A statistically significant difference (p less than 0.

[Transsexualism].

According to the literature, the transsexual phenomenon can be assessed as a distinct psychiatric illness. Transsexualism, a rare but spectacular disorder, realizes a gender identity reversal raising questions regarding systems of psychiatric diagnosis, nosology and treatment. A better clinical knowledge of this "experiment" and its follow-up allow studying processes contributory to marked deviation of gender identity and furthering concepts of development of masculinity and feminity.