Patients' representations of antidepressants: a clue to nonadherence?

Objectives: Antidepressants are prescribed frequently to chronic pain patients due to their pain relief effects. This medication raises major adherence issues. Despite the adverse effects, little is known about the factors that may jeopardize adherence in chronic pain patients.

[New ways for treatment of depression in primary care].

Depression is the most frequent psychiatric disorder and is associated with marked distress and work impairment. General practitioners are primarily involved in the treatment of these patients, but they lack specific training and the most important target to enhance access to suitable care. Systematic referral to a psychiatrist is not always recommended, not well accepted from the everyday patient and totally unfeasible due to the lack of therapists' vacancy.

Criterion validity of the French version of Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ) in a hospital department of internal medicine.

Objectives: Depressive disorders are overrepresented among the patients admitted to non-psychiatric units in general hospitals. However, the majority of depressed patients fail to be identified within this care setting. Since a self-administered questionnaire (Patient Health Questionnaire, PHQ-9) has given encouraging results in English and Spanish, new research should test its criterion validity in a French-speaking environment.

Prevalence and treatment of depression in a hospital department of internal medicine.

Background: Depressive disorders are overrepresented among patients admitted to nonpsychiatric units of general hospitals, but the majority of depressed patients are not identified in this setting. Effective and well-tolerated treatments and reliable diagnostic criteria, together with new assessment tools (self-administered or not), have been developed with encouraging results. Nevertheless, few studies have utilized standardized instruments and extensive clinical interviews by well-trained psychiatrists to assess depression.

Guidelines and evaluation: improving the quality of consultation-liaison psychiatry.

Previous research has shown that residents in the consultation-liaison unit of Geneva University Hospital did not meet proposed guidelines on three counts: quickness of response to emergency situations, reporting cases to supervisors, and consulting with supervisors on major issues. The introduction of daily meetings between residents and supervisors improved the level of compliance with guidelines, from 69.2% to 82.

Contraceptive practice before and after termination of pregnancy: a prospective study.

This study is part of a larger prospective research program focusing on termination of pregnancy (TOP). One hundred and three women requesting TOP were interviewed before the intervention and 6 months later using open and closed questions and psychological tests. This paper focuses on contraceptive practices before and after abortion.