Publications by authors named "P Lachance-Touchette"

Background: Cannabis use is highly prevalent in young people with first-episode psychosis (FEP). Most report cannabis use and are often diagnosed with a cannabis use disorder upon admission to specialized services for psychosis. Cannabis use in this population is associated with worse clinical and psychosocial outcomes, rendering it an important clinical target.

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Article Synopsis
  • Cannabis use among adolescents and young adults is linked to cannabis use disorder (CUD) and psychosis, with high cases of CUD found in individuals experiencing first-episode psychosis (FEP).
  • Early Intervention Services (EIS) aim to address CUD through psychosocial methods, but barriers like limited access can impede their effectiveness, prompting interest in mobile health (mHealth) solutions.
  • This study outlines a pilot trial for a new mHealth intervention called iCanChange (iCC) aimed at reducing CUD in young adults with FEP, combining techniques like cognitive behavioral therapy and motivational interviewing over a 12-week program.
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Background: Genetic generalised epilepsy is the most common type of inherited epilepsy. Despite a high concordance rate of 80% in monozygotic twins, the genetic background is still poorly understood. We aimed to investigate the burden of rare genetic variants in genetic generalised epilepsy.

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Background: Schizophrenia (SCZ) is a very heterogeneous disease that affects approximately 1% of the general population. Recently, the genetic complexity thought to underlie this condition was further supported by three independent studies that identified an increased number of damaging de novo mutations DNM in different SCZ probands. While these three reports support the implication of DNM in the pathogenesis of SCZ, the absence of overlap in the genes identified suggests that the number of genes involved in SCZ is likely to be very large; a notion that has been supported by the moderate success of Genome-Wide Association Studies (GWAS).

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Mutations in genes encoding for GABAA receptor subunits is a well-established cause of genetic generalized epilepsy. GABA neurotransmission is implicated in several developmental processes including neurite outgrowth and synapse formation. Alteration in excitatory/inhibitory synaptic activities plays a critical role in epilepsy, thus here we investigated whether mutations in α1 subunit of GABAA receptor may affect dendritic spine and GABAergic bouton formation.

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