Multidimensional family therapy decreases the rate of externalising behavioural disorder symptoms in cannabis abusing adolescents: outcomes of the INCANT trial.

Background: US-based trials have shown that Multidimensional Family Therapy (MDFT) not only reduces substance abuse among adolescents, but also decreases mental and behavioural disorder symptoms, most notably externalising symptoms. In the INCANT trial, MDFT decreased the rate of cannabis dependence among Western European youth. We now focus on other INCANT outcomes, i.

Multidimensional family therapy lowers the rate of cannabis dependence in adolescents: a randomised controlled trial in Western European outpatient settings.

Background: Noticing a lack of evidence-based programmes for treating adolescents heavily using cannabis in Europe, government representatives from Belgium, France, Germany, The Netherlands, and Switzerland decided to have U.S.-developed multidimensional family therapy (MDFT) tested in their countries in a trans-national trial, called the International Need for Cannabis Treatment (INCANT) study.

[Eole-Réseau LIENS: telephone based assistance and referral advice for primary care professionals confronted with mental health issues in their patients].

Eole-LIENS is an available telephone line for first-line professionnels facing, in their daily practice, patients or users in psychological trouble. This service proposes a dialogue with a third party allowing a support, a help to the handling of the situation, a finer orientation towards the institutions existing in the network.

INCANT: a transnational randomized trial of multidimensional family therapy versus treatment as usual for adolescents with cannabis use disorder.

Background: In 2003, the governments of Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland agreed that there was a need in Europe for a treatment programme for adolescents with cannabis use disorders and other behavioural problems. Based on an exhaustive literature review of evidence-based treatments and an international experts meeting, Multidimensional Family Therapy (MDFT) was selected for a pilot study first, which was successful, and then for a joint, transnational randomized controlled trial named INCANT (INternational CAnnabis Need for Treatment).

Methods/design: INCANT is a randomized controlled trial (RCT) with an open-label, parallel group design.

Evaluation of cognitive functioning in 101 patients before opiate detoxification: implications in setting up therapeutic strategies.

Many studies have brought to light the facts that repeated use of drugs significantly influences one's cognitive functions, and that cognitive problems could interfere directly with one's capacity to participate in a rehabilitation program. In this research, we used the Global Deterioration Scale (GDS) to assess the cognitive status of 101 hospitalized patients in an opiate detoxification program. The results reveal that a majority of the tested patients present cognitive abnormalities to varying degrees of severity.

[Hard use of soft drugs].

The concept of "soft drugs" is unclear and refers more to the behaviour of consumers than to the specific pharmacological properties of substances. However, "soft drugs" is often understood as "safe drugs." However, it is of major importance to underline that all drugs can induce major loss of the control of consumption, what is the crucial point of addictive behaviour.

Impaired emotional facial expression recognition in alcohol dependence: do these deficits persist with midterm abstinence?

Background: Emotional facial expression (EFE) decoding has been repetitively shown to be impaired in alcoholic inpatients. The present study aimed to replicate and extend previous findings on EFE recognition deficits in alcoholism.

Methods: Alcoholic and control participants' performances were compared on an EFE decoding task with a transversal and a longitudinal design.

Impaired emotional facial expression recognition in alcoholics: are these deficits specific to emotional cues?

Previous studies have repeatedly linked alcoholism is to impairment in emotional facial expression decoding. The present study aimed at extending previous findings while controlling for exposure times of stimuli. Further, a control task was added on the decoding of non-emotional facial features.

[Validation of a school children addictive behaviors questionnaire].

Unlabelled: The aim was to develop and validate an addictive behaviors screening tool in school children.

Methodology: A cross sectional study including a self administrated 223 item questionnaire developed in Arabic language. The questionnaire included identification of the student and seven life domains: school, family, addiction, relationships with peers, leisure and well being, risky behaviors and personality traits.

Emotional facial expression decoding impairment in persons dependent on multiple substances: impact of a history of alcohol dependence.

Objective: The decoding of emotional facial expressions is impaired in recovering alcoholics and less severely so in opiate-dependent persons without alcohol dependence antecedents. This study addressed two complementary questions: (1) How do these decoding deficits change with long-term abstinence during an institutionalized therapeutic program? and (2) Do alcohol-dependent antecedents constitute a factor impairing a potential recovery?

Method: Sixty-five participants (54 men and 11 women) were recruited at a long-stay postdetoxification treatment center. They were assigned to one of four groups, depending on (1) whether or not they met alcohol dependence criteria in the past and (2) whether they were at therapeutic Stage 1 or Stage 2.

A pharmacological modulation of opiate withdrawal using an up-/down-regulation of the noradrenergic system in opiate-dependent rats.

Chronic opioid exposure induces neuroadaptative changes in several brain systems. Amongst others the alpha adrenergic system appears to be extremely sensitive to opioid exposure and has, therefore, been proposed to play a key role in opiate withdrawal symptoms. In order to better understand the influence of the noradrenergic system in opioid withdrawal and be able to develop new therapeutic strategies, we studied the effect of pre-treatment with the alpha2 agonist (clonidine) and alpha2 antagonist (yohimbine) on naloxone-precipitated withdrawal in opiate-dependent rats.

Cognitive biases toward alcohol-related words and executive deficits in polysubstance abusers with alcoholism.

Aim: To study cognitive biases for alcohol-related cues on executive function tasks involving mental flexibility and response inhibition in polysubstance abusers with alcoholism.

Design: The responses to alcohol-related cues of detoxified polysubstance abusers with alcoholism and of non-addicts were compared.

Setting: The University of Iowa City, Iowa, USA.

Effects of anaesthetic agents in interference of naloxone-induced opiate-withdrawal are dose-dependent in opiate-dependent rats.

In opiate-dependent rats previous studies showed that anaesthetic agents, such as chloral hydrate, midazolam and ketamine interfere with naloxone-precipitated opiate withdrawal. Each anaesthetic induces a specific pattern of interference, indicating that the interference is agent-dependent. In order to further investigate these effects and highlight a potential pharmacological basis of opiate withdrawal interference through anaesthetic agents, we hypothesized that anaesthetic-mediated interference of opiate withdrawal is also dose-dependent.

Inverse association between Slow Wave Activity per cycle and the number of ultradian sleep cycles per night in healthy humans.

Objective: Comparisons of sleep Slow Wave Activity (SWA) during successive sleep cycles rely on the assumption that SWA in a given cycle is independent of the number of ultradian cycles present in a night. This assumption was evaluated here.

Methods: Twenty-six healthy controls with no medical, sleep or psychiatric disorders were selected among 84 candidates and their sleep was recorded at home across 2 consecutive nights after two habituation nights.

Effect of community nurse follow-up when treating alcohol dependence with acamprosate.

Aims: To measure the effect of community nurse follow-up on abstinence and retention rates in the outpatient treatment of alcohol-dependent patients treated with acamprosate.

Methods: Recently detoxified alcohol-dependent patients were prescribed acamprosate for 26 weeks and randomized to either physician-only follow-up, or physician plus regular visits from a community nurse. Drinking behaviour in the next 26 weeks was assessed at monthly visits to non-blind clinicians.

Psychosis, migration and social environment: an age--and--gender controlled study.

Purpose: Adverse social experiences are frequently invoked to explain the higher rate of psychosis among migrant groups. The aim of the present study was to establish the socio-environmental factors distinguishing migrant psychotic patients from autochthonous patients.

Subjects And Method: We conducted a cross-sectional survey involving 341 migrant psychotic patients matched for age and gender with 341 autochthonous psychotic patients.

Family approach with grandchildren of Holocaust survivors.

Although the transgenerational transmission of Holocaust trauma is now well documented, this subject remains a source of considerable controversy. Moreover, the literature regarding the grandchildren of Holocaust survivors (GHSs, the third generation) is much sparser. We present here several clinical observations, that we made during therapy sessions with certain families of Holocaust survivors (HSs).

Personality profile and drug of choice; a multivariate analysis using Cloninger's TCI on heroin addicts, alcoholics, and a random population group.

As personality may predispose, precipitate or perpetuate substance abuse and/or dependence, and as it is considered to remain stable across the years in a given subject, potential links with the drug of choice may help screen future patients before drug consumption. The present study compared three groups: 42 patients with heroin dependence (mean age: 31.2; standard deviation (SD): 5.

First-night effect in the chronic fatigue syndrome.

Since the magnitude of the first-night effect has been shown to be a function of medical conditions and of settings in which polysomnographies are performed, it is essential to evaluate the habituation phenomenon in each case in order to determine the optimal recording methodology. A first-night effect was evidenced in certain cases of chronic fatigue syndrome, but not in others. To clarify this issue, a large group of patients with chronic fatigue syndrome who had no primary sleep disorders were selected and recorded for two consecutive nights in a hospital sleep unit.

Double-blind, placebo-controlled study of the efficacy of trazodone in alcohol post-withdrawal syndrome: polysomnographic and clinical evaluations.

Alcohol detoxification is accompanied by sustained difficulties in sleep initiation and maintenance. These difficulties are thought to be an important cause of relapse to alcohol use. However, the treatment of sleep problems with hypnotic drug is made difficult by cross-tolerance between benzodiazepines and alcohol.

Impaired emotional facial expression recognition in alcoholics, opiate dependence subjects, methadone maintained subjects and mixed alcohol-opiate antecedents subjects compared with normal controls.

The present study aims to explore whether an impairment in emotional facial expressions (EFE) decoding is specific to alcoholism compared with opiate dependence. An EFE decoding test consisting of 16 photographs of EFE portraying happiness, anger, sadness and disgust was administered to five different groups of 30 subjects each: recently detoxified alcoholics (RA); opiate addicts under methadone maintenance treatment (OM); detoxified opiate addicts (OA); detoxified subjects with both alcohol and opiate dependence antecedents (DAO); and normal controls (NC). Repeated measures analysis of variance using a multivariate approach was conducted on EFE decoding accuracy scores with group as the between-subjects factor.

Psychiatric disorders and social characteristics among second-generation Moroccan migrants in Belgium: an age-and gender-controlled study conducted in a psychiatric emergency department.

Purpose: Clinically, one of the most consistent clinical findings among migrant patients is an increase in the rate of psychosis. The aim of the present study was to confirm this finding in Belgium by comparing second-generation Moroccan migrant patients with Belgian patients, matched for the variables of age and gender.

Subjects And Method: We conducted a cross-sectional survey on 272 patients admitted in a psychiatric emergency unit during the year 1998.

The European NEAT program: an integrated approach using acamprosate and psychosocial support for the prevention of relapse in alcohol-dependent patients with a statistical modeling of therapy success prediction.

Background: A multicenter, prospective study was conducted in five European countries to observe outcome in alcohol misusers treated for 24 weeks with acamprosate and various psychosocial support techniques, within the setting of standard patient care.

Methods: Patients diagnosed as alcohol dependent using DSM-III-R criteria were treated, for 24 weeks, with acamprosate and appropriate psychosocial support. Potential predictor variables were recorded at inclusion.