[Gender, ages, psychotropic and anti-pain drugs uses in the Third Swiss Health Survey].

From the third Swiss Health Survey, gender prevalence of psychotropic and anti-pain drugs uses are described. Age differences are added to gender differences. In particular for aging populations, psychotropic drugs are prescribed by compassion.

[From blind knowledge to experiential knowledge].

A postgraduate course in psychosomatic and psychosocial medicine for general practitioners started in 1999 from Marc Archinard advice. It consists of about half the hours required for the "Attestation de formation complémentaire" granted by the Swiss Academy of psychosomatic and psychosocial medicine (AMPP). This article describes the elaboration of a questionnaire assessing the professional competences acquired by the practitioners after the course.

Social prognostic factors of mortality in a random cohort of Geneva subjects followed up for a period of 12 years.

Study Objective: To analyse the relative risk (RR) of mortality related to social factors independent of health status and occupational category.

Setting: Subjects were Swiss men and women aged 40-65 years.

Design: A random sample of 820 people living in Geneva were followed up prospectively between 1984 and 1996.

[Maturescence, a critical phase between ages 40 and 65. Health, illness, aging and social ages].

The recent emergence of a critical phase in life called maturescence, situated between the ages of 40 and 65, is a by-product of social life in industrialized societies. Because it is considered as a crossroads, this phase in life is not connected with any particular chronological age, such as reaching forty or fifty. Rather, it involves the difficulties of aging in society and the oncoming of identity conflicts, all of which must be seen in relation with the specific health-related problems that result from aging.

[Evaluation of psychosocial follow-up of acute cases: problems and methods of crisis treatment in psychiatry].

In psychiatry, request to evaluate treatments are increasingly frequent. Based on a Geneva research project dealing with the evaluation of crisis treatment and its follow-up over a two-year period, the authors examine the various steps involved in the evaluation of treatment prescription and follow-up, from the theoretical and methodological points of view.