[Sponsorship by a peer and recovery for persons suffering of a severe psychotic condition].

For people with a mental health disorder, peer support (peer in the sense of people having recovered from such a disorder) is a great therapeutic value. Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) were the first to show this therapeutic value. Their approach has several elements of which, aside from the "meetings" and the program of the "12 steps," a major element is the sponsorship of an individual by a peer.

[A mental health hygiene experiment: the case of Les Pinceaux d'Or].

Many research, notably that of Gene Cohen (2007), have shown positive impact of artistic activities for seniors. In 2006 in Quebec City, three professional painters have created a none lucrative organization called Les Pinceaux d'Or (The Golden Brushes). Its mission is to create a positive experience of painting learning in elderly needing persons.

[From the École Gamelin to the Rivière-des-Prairies Hospital: from scandals to its restoration].

The history of the Hôpital Rivière-des-Prairies from its origins up to today is like the history of psychiatric institutions in French Canada: it constitutes a condensed of nearly 80 years: evolution marked by alternating generous initiatives and regrettable events if not scandals with nevertheless a recent successful evolution in its participation within the Institut universitaire en santé de Montréal. From the institutional presented case, this story invites us to keep in mind on the vulnerability of the psychiatric institutions to the perversion of its innovations.

[What is the future of the Louis-H. Lafontaine Hospital?].

Most of the time, a government manages in order to keep the public support and tries to make others look responsible for the difficulties generated by his inertia. The history of various changes in the transformation of of the Hôpital Saint-Jean-de-Dieu to the Hôpital Louis-Hippolyte-Lafontaine had led to three administrative guardianships illustrates this, if we consider that the first one avoid such name. This merely about the events that led from the first one to the second guardianship.

Shared and specific susceptibility loci for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder: a dense genome scan in Eastern Quebec families.

The goal of this study was to identify susceptibility loci shared by schizophrenia (SZ) and bipolar disorder (BP), or specific to each. To this end, we performed a dense genome scan in a first sample of 21 multigenerational families of Eastern Quebec affected by SZ, BP or both (N=480 family members). This probably constitutes the first genome scan of SZ and BP that used the same ascertainment, statistical and molecular methods for the concurrent study of the two disorders.

A search for specific and common susceptibility loci for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder: a linkage study in 13 target chromosomes.

We report the first stage of a genome scan of schizophrenia (SZ) and bipolar disorder (BP) covering 18 candidate chromosomal areas. In addition to testing susceptibility loci that are specific to each disorder, we tested the hypothesis that some susceptibility loci might be common to both disorders. A total of 480 individuals from 21 multigenerational pedigrees of Eastern Québec were evaluated by means of a consensus best-estimate diagnosis made blind to diagnoses in relatives and were genotyped with 220 microsatellite markers.

[Evaluation of potential community resources for mental health].

Objectives: Within the framework of the mental health services regional organization, the objectives are to describe and assess a day-care type alternative, informal mental health care service model.

Method: One hundred and twenty-nine subjects were studied in a stratified sample from 3 community organizations in a mostly urban subregion in Quebec. The data were collected in several steps with 3 types of respondents: the user, the clinical team, and the community organization.

Clinical and methodological factors related to reliability of the best-estimate diagnostic procedure.

Objective: The reliability and accuracy of the best-estimate diagnostic procedure were examined, and factors associated with reliability were determined.

Method: The subjects were 134 members of large multigenerational pedigrees densely affected by bipolar disorders or schizophrenia. Three best-estimate diagnoses were derived: first, by a research psychiatrist and research assistant unblind to the relatives' diagnoses; second, by two blind independent psychiatrists; third, by a panel of four blind psychiatrists.

6p24-22 region and major psychoses in the Eastern Quebec population. Le Groupe IREP.

Recent reports of a linkage trend in 6p24-22 for schizophrenia (SZ), in different samples, were tempered by the concurrent evidence of negative reports in other samples. In the studies showing positive results, different definitions of affection and a wide spectrum of diagnoses were used. Our objectives were not only to test for linkage at 6p24-22 in the Eastern Quebec population, but also to test whether this putative vulnerability locus was either selectively linked to schizophrenia (SZ), or to bipolar disorder (BP), or to both major psychoses.

[Assessment of psychiatric and mental health services in Québec.].

One of the ways of finding out where we are going consists of asking ourselves where do we come from. Here the author uses a historical approach to give an overview of the problem of insanity in Québec. The author discusses how people view insanity, its causes and treatments and the characteristics of the organizations (actors, values, knowledge, human and financial resources) that have met its challenge.

Characteristics of physician addicts.

This article attempts to characterize the physician addict and to challenge the usual sociological or psychological explanations of differences and similarities among addicts. Using available data on Quebec physicians, two types of physician addicts are described according to the "two diseases model." In its first form the disease is characterized by the search of euphoria, and as such is considered to be highly contagious and pernicious, while the other is rarely contagious and relatively less pernicious.

[Adoption and reunion.].

Following the phenomenon of reunions instigated by the newspaper Le Soleil of Quebec, the author provides us with his reflections on this subject. He explains that there exists already in parents and children of a natural family, an adoption phenomenon whose bases he indicates. From this finding he discusses the six (6) important facts that the reunion phenomenon has uncovered, and concludes with this question : does the search for biological parents represent a search for a real alternative to the child's actual parents, as religion is at times, or, is it more an effort aimed at the retrieval of the complete history of his birth and the first days of his life?

Drug addiction among Quebec physicians.

Data collected by the Quebec Board of Physicians show that during the 5 years from 1974 to 1978 the prevalence of addiction to opiates among Quebec physicians was 2.8/1000. The physician addicts had greater mobility and a higher attrition rate than their peers.

[Work and social reintegration in psychiatry.].

This article describes the graduated program of social réintégration into the working world of ex-patients of the Robert-Giffard Hospital. The philosophy of this program is the "normalization" of the patients achieved through four progressive stages of apprenticeship. Each stage includes different apprenticeship objectives, physical environment, professional resources and an evaluation tool (the A.