Anticipatory anxiety of seizures: What is the best treatment?

Anxiety disorders affect roughly 25% of people with epilepsy (PWE), and are associated with a strong impairment of quality of life and a poorer stabilization of epilepsy. Anticipatory anxiety of seizure (AAS), defined by the persistent worry or fear to have another seizure, is highly frequent and associated with avoidant behavior. Unfortunately, AAS is often overlooked and untreated.

French Society for Biological Psychiatry and Neuropsychopharmacology (AFPBN) guidelines for the management of patients with partially responsive depression and treatment-resistant depression: Update 2024.

Introduction: The purpose of this update is to add newly approved nomenclatures and treatments as well as treatments yet to be approved in major depressive disorder, thus expanding the discussions on the integration of resistance factors into the clinical approach.

Methods: Unlike the first consensus guidelines based on the RAND/UCLA Appropriateness Method, the French Association for Biological Psychiatry and Neuropsychopharmacology (AFPBN) developed an update of these guidelines for the management of partially responsive depression (PRD) and treatment-resistant depression (TRD). The expert guidelines combine scientific evidence and expert clinicians' opinions to produce recommendations for PRD and TRD.

Management strategies for antidepressant-related sexual dysfunction.

Antidepressant-related sexual dysfunction is one of the most frequently met adverse effects for individuals suffering from major depressive disorder. When primary prevention by non-pharmacological measures fails, empirical coping strategies might be proposed. In this article, we present a brief overview of pharmacological strategies for antidepressant-related sexual dysfunction, considering antidepressants and conceivable corrective medications.

[Pimavanserin and trazodone combination in behavioral disorders in severe dementia with Lewy bodies].

Introduction: Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) is characterized by neurocognitive disorders associated with core clinical features including hallucinations. There is currently no cure but a combination of symptomatic treatments: clozapine is commonly used in DLB-related psychosis. Pimavanserin is a serotonin 5HT-2A receptor inverse agonist that has recently been shown to reduce psychosis related to dementia.

[A guide to psychiatric prescribing in pregnancy, postpartum and breastfeeding].

Perinatal psychopharmacology is an emerging specialty that is gradually developing alongside perinatal psychiatry. The management of psychiatric disorders during the perinatal period is a challenge for perinatal practitioners due to the multiple changes occurring during this crucial period. This little-known specialty still suffers from inappropriate considerations on the impact of psychotropic treatments on the mother and the infant during pregnancy and postpartum, which can promote a deficiency in perinatal psychic care.

Clinical Pharmacy in Psychiatry: Towards Promoting Clinical Expertise in Psychopharmacology.

Although clinical pharmacy is a discipline that emerged in the 1960s, the question of precisely how pharmacists can play a role in therapeutic optimization remains unanswered. In the field of mental health, psychiatric pharmacists are increasingly involved in medication reconciliation and therapeutic patient education (or psychoeducation) to improve medication management and enhance medication adherence, respectively. However, psychiatric pharmacists must now assume a growing role in team-based models of care and engage in shared expertise in psychopharmacology in order to truly invest in therapeutic optimization of psychotropics.

Antihistamine and cationic amphiphilic drugs, old molecules as new tools against the COVID-19?

Several studies have reported that certain psychoactive drugs could have a protective effect against SARS-CoV-2. Herein, we propose that antihistamines (anti-H1) and cationic amphiphilic drugs (CAD), specifically, have the capacity to disrupt virus entry and replication. In addition, several of these molecules have limited side effects and as such could be promising prophylactic candidates against SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Benefit of long-acting paliperidone in Huntington's disease: a case report.

Through this brief report, we described our clinical considerations about the treatment of motor fluctuations and psychiatric comorbidities in Huntington's disease, for example, aggressiveness and obsessive-compulsive disorders. Indeed, as classical treatment, for example, olanzapine and risperidone, were inefficient to improve motor disorders in our patient, we postulated that motor fluctuations could be influenced by the pharmacokinetic profile of oral risperidone. So, in line with recent practice in schizophrenia, we proposed empirically paliperidone 1-month long-acting injections hypothesized to improve motor fluctuations, treatment so far reserved to Huntington's disease patients who are noncompliant to oral risperidone.

Anticipatory anxiety of epileptic seizures: An overlooked dimension linked to trauma history.

Objective: Fear of having a seizure called anticipatory anxiety of epileptic seizure (AAS), constitutes a daily life burden but has been rarely studied. Our aim was to assess the prevalence and the determining factors of AAS in patients with drug-resistant focal epilepsy, a dimension that has not been thoroughly investigated before.

Methods: We conducted an observational, prospective study enrolling patients with drug-resistant focal epilepsy.

Enhancing the role played by clinical pharmacists in psychiatric settings to better integrate clinical psychopharmacology into the decision-making process.

The importance of clinical psychopharmacological knowledge for modern psychiatric care is both well-established and underdeveloped. Although psychiatric pharmacists are identified as experts in psychopharmacotherapy based on pharmacists' overall expertise in pharmacotherapy, in real-life health settings, such is not necessarily the case. As a matter of fact, (1) pharmacists' real expertise in pharmacotherapy is mainly seen as useful to patients (as part of therapeutic education), (2) pharmacists' practice methods are usually circumscribed to the framework of quality processes (e.

Towards a pharmacochemical hypothesis of the prophylaxis of SARS-CoV-2 by psychoactive substances.

An increasing body of evidence suggests a protective effect of some psychoactive substances against SARS-CoV-2 (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus type 2). Recent findings suggest that patients with psychiatric disorders are less affected by SARS-CoV-2 than their caregivers, which may seem surprising given some of the frequent risk factors for an unfavorable course of the disease (e.g.

Panic and pandemic: Narrative review of the literature on the links and risks of panic disorder as a consequence of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.

Although the "panic" word has been abundantly linked to the SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2) pandemic in the press, in the scientific literature very few studies have considered whether the current epidemic could predispose to the onset or the aggravation of panic attacks or panic disorder. Indeed, most studies thus far have focused on the risk of increase and aggravation of other psychiatric disorders as a consequence of the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic, such as obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). Yet, risk of onset or aggravation of panic disorder, especially the subtype with prominent respiratory symptoms, which is characterized by a fear response conditioning to interoceptive sensations (e.

[Psychopharmacotherapeutic guidelines : a challenge during health crisis].

The construction of pharmacological guidelines is a complex endeavor, and this is all the truer amidst a health crisis such as the current SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. In psychiatric settings, guidelines have to consider the handling of other drugs (i.e.

COVID-19: urgency for distancing from domestic violence.

Background: Although COVID-19 is a major worldwide health threat, there is another global public health emergency that is becoming a growing challenge. Domestic violence is a public health and human rights issue that primarily affects women and children worldwide. Several countries have reported a significant increase in domestic violence cases since the COVID-19-induced lockdowns and physical distancing measures were implemented.

COVID-19 and its psychological consequences: Beware of the respiratory subtype of panic disorder.

• COVID-19 could increase the rates of the respiratory subtype of panic disorder.

Reconsidering Rigidity in the Diagnosis of Neuroleptic Malignant Syndrome: A Case Report.

Neuroleptic malignant syndrome (NMS) is a rare but potentially fatal syndrome classically encountered in patients receiving typical antipsychotic agents. However, many physicians have also reported the occurrence of NMS with atypical antipsychotics, notably with atypical presentations. In this report, we present a case in which a patient's antipsychotic regimen during a psychotic episode (which involved both typical and atypical antipsychotics) subsequently led to NMS.