Alcohol dependence in women: difficulty of its assessment in general practice.

Background: In France, women represent approximately 20% of alcohol-dependent subjects. Although general practitioners (GPs) are often these women's first medical contact, GPs may be reluctant to probe for alcohol dependence.

Method: In this context, in 1996 and 2006 we conducted a cross-sectional survey using self-completion postal questionnaires sent to all GPs in a French département (administrative area), with the aim to explore and to compare after a ten-year time lapse, expectations and relational difficulties in managing alcohol dependence in women.

Schizophrenia and viral infection during neurodevelopment: a pathogenesis model?

The neurodevelopmental hypothesis of schizophrenia proposes that a portion of schizophrenia is the result of an early brain insult which affects brain development and in which several types of virus might play an etiological role. The main arguments in favor of the neurodevelopmental hypothesis and the involvement of prenatal exposure to virus infection as a risk factor for adult schizophrenia are reviewed. Schizophrenia is associated with an increased incidence of craniofacial asymmetries and dermatoglyphic irregularities which might reflect an abnormal development of the ectoderm and the neural crest as a result of a viral infection between the first and second trimester of pregnancy.