[Principles of cognitive remediation in schizophrenia].

Cognitive remediation is an innovative psychosocial therapy which can provide a substantial benefit, especially for schizophrenic patients. As its name implies, the aim of cognitive remediation is to restore cognitive functions. Most cognitive domains (attention, memory and executive functions) are impaired in schizophrenia.

Confirmation of the factorial structure of temperamental autoquestionnaire TEMPS-A in non-clinical young adults and relation to current state of anxiety, depression and to schizotypal traits.

Background: The 39-item TEMPS-A self-rated questionnaire assesses affective temperaments. We examined the factorial structure of its French version in a large sample of young adults and examined the relation to schizotypy, depression and anxiety.

Method: University students were enrolled during their mandatory preventive health visit in the University medical facility (n = 3807, 19.

Variable individual sensitivity to cannabis in patients with schizophrenia.

There is now compelling evidence that cannabis consumption might precipitate psychosis onset. The objective of the present study was to assess the role of individual sensitivity to the psychotogenic effect of cannabis in male patients with schizophrenia. The lifetime diagnosis, disease and substance-use history were determined using a standardized interview in 190 patients with schizophrenia.

Deficit of inhibition motor control in untreated patients with schizophrenia: further support from visually guided saccade paradigms.

In addition to classical delusional, negative, and cognitive deficit, schizophrenia has consistently been associated with impairments in saccadic eye movements, e.g., an increased error rate in the antisaccade task.

Maintenance electroconvulsive therapy: an alternative treatment for refractory schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorders.

This retrospective chart review of a clinical cohort of 19 refractory schizophrenic or schizoaffective patients treated with maintenance electroconvulsive therapy addresses the indications for this treatment, its efficacy, and its impact on daily functioning and hospitalizations. Maintenance electroconvulsive therapy combined with medication appears to be an efficient alternative to pharmacological treatment alone.

[Forensic psychiatry].

in France about 700 psychiatrists are licensed to determine criminal responsibility before the courts, in other words to assess whether a criminal was capable of knowing what he or she was doing or of controlling him or herself Criminals who are considered irresponsible are committed to psychiatric hospitals. Criminals who are considered to have diminished judgment or control may nonetheless be prosecuted and jailed Psychiatric experts may also be asked to predict aggressive behaviour, and to identify determinants of crime. Too often the answers are not fully grounded in science, and this is not made sufficiently clear.

[Physiological adolescence, pathological adolescence].

The uncertainties of looming adulthood, nostalgia for childhood, and a general malaise explain the crisis of adolescence. Rebellion, conflict, occasional failure at school or in society, and at-risk behaviors are not always signs of future psychiatric illness. In contrast, the physician must be in a position to identify tell-tale signs such as dysmorphophobia, existential anxiety, a feeling of emptiness, and school or social breakdown.

The French version of the validated short TEMPS-A: the temperament evaluation of Memphis, Pisa, Paris and San Diego.

The TEMPS developed from classical temperament concepts at the Universities of Tennessee (Memphis) and California (San Diego) in collaboration with clinical scientists in Pisa and Paris. It presently exists in 20 languages and full validation of its 110-item version has been accomplished in American English, Italian, French, German, Hungarian, Japanese, Turkish, Lebanese Arabic and Argentinean Spanish. For many studies, a shorter version is easier to use.

Somatic augmentation strategies in clozapine resistance--what facts?

Background: Polypharmacy without evidence-based support is sometimes needed for patients treated with 40% to 70% clozapine who are clozapine nonresponders. Several somatic augmentation strategies are proposed in the scientific literature, with different levels of evidence for safety and efficacy.

Objectives: The purpose of the present study is to review the available literature on the efficacy and safety of clozapine augmentation with somatic agents other than antipsychotics.

Augmentation strategies of clozapine with antipsychotics in the treatment of ultraresistant schizophrenia.

Background: Approximately 40% to 70% of neuroleptic-resistant schizophrenic patients are nonresponders to clozapine. Several clozapine augmentation strategies have come into clinical practice although often without evidence-based support. Among these strategies, the combined use of clozapine with another antipsychotic has been reported for up to 35% of patients receiving clozapine.

[Schizophrenic disorders: current etiologic and clinical knowledge].

Brain anomalies associated with schizophrenic disorders may be of a cognitive, neurophysiological or neurological nature [the latter being relatively minor and nonspecific]. Brain imaging has revealed early anomalies such as cortical-subcortical atrophy and abnormal gyration. These anomalies can also be present in relatives free of schizophrenic symptoms.

[Stress, depression and cerebral plasticity: an update of clinical and experimental findings].

Recent studies of neuroplasticity in stress and depression have given rise to new hypotheses on the neural bases of these disorders. Based on data from imaging studies, cellular and molecular biology, and animal models, this approach could help to understand certain clinical findings, and especially cognitive impairments. Some antidepressants have effects on neuroplasticity, in addition to their symptomatic effects on depression.

Cognitive dysfunctions in medicated and unmedicated patients with recent-onset schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia is associated with impairments in many cognitive domains on which the influence of antipsychotics, whether conventional or atypical, remains unclear. We conducted a study of recent-onset schizophrenic patients (DSM IV) that included unmedicated (n=19), and medicated (n=19) patients matched for age and IQ. Both groups of patients had comparably low extra-pyramidal symptoms (EPS).

[Depression and aging].

Depression is one of the most common health disorders in elderly people. It is still often considered as a natural consequence of aging, arising in reaction to a medical disease, cognitive or functional decline, or a loss of social fabric. Many studies have highlighted the low rates of diagnosis and treatment of depression, especially in the primary care setting.

A double-blind, randomized comparative trial of amisulpride versus olanzapine for 6 months in the treatment of schizophrenia.

Atypical antipsychotics offer advantages over earlier drugs for the treatment of schizophrenia, although few data exist on the relative merits of different atypical antipsychotics. A multicentre, double-blind, randomized trial was performed to compare amisulpride and olanzapine in the treatment of acute schizophrenia. Adult schizophrenic patients with dominant positive symptomatology received amisulpride (200-800 mg/day) or olanzapine (5-20 mg/day) for 6 months.

Effects of atypical neuroleptics on alertness and visual orienting in stabilized schizophrenic patients: a preliminary study.

It has been shown that schizophrenic patients treated with conventional neuroleptics display a general slowness in latency in simple reaction-time tasks and a disengagement deficit in visual-orienting tasks. Yet, the influence of atypical neuroleptics on attention is still controversial. The purpose of our study was to investigate the effect of atypical neuroleptics in tasks requiring alertness, selective attention or visual orienting.

Minor physical anomalies in patients with schizophrenia and their parents: prevalence and pattern of craniofacial abnormalities.

The frequency of minor physical anomalies (MPAs) in patients with schizophrenia suggests an early disturbance in the development of the neuroectoderm. To improve the phenotypic delimitation of this disorder, we used a comprehensive scale of MPAs (41 items) in patients with schizophrenia and their first-degree relatives. This scale, adapted from a revised version of the Waldrop Scale (Ismail et al.

Depression in France and Brazil: factorial structure of the 17-item Hamilton Depression Scale in inpatients.

Among various research strategies for depression, the cross-cultural approach is a useful tool to investigate depressive disorders. The Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression was applied to 130 depressed inpatients in France and Brazil. Items were factorized by principal component analysis with Varimax rotation using the Kaiser or simulation method for factor sorting.

Correlation between clinical syndromes and neuropsychological tasks in unmedicated patients with recent onset schizophrenia.

The aim of this study is to circumscribe the cognitive deficits according to schizophrenic syndromes in a population of sub-acute untreated patients. We have studied the cross-sectional correlation between cognitive deficits and schizophrenic symptoms, in a group of 24 untreated patients (including 17 neuroleptic-naive patients) with recent onset of the disease. A task of alertness, a working memory (WM) test (including two levels of difficulty) and an abbreviated version of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) were selected.