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Biomedical subjects

A Féline

Publications and source records attributed to A Féline.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1999

The cortical serotonin2 receptors studied with positron-emission tomography and [18F]-setoperone during depressive illness and antidepressant treatment with clomipramine.

BACKGROUND: Changes in serotonin (5-HT)2 receptor densities were reported in depression by postmortem studies and following treatment with tricyclic antidepressants in animal studies. Here, 5-HT2 receptors were studied in vivo in depressed patients. METHODS: Cortical 5-HT2 receptors were investigated prospectively using positron-emission tomography and [18F]-setoperone in 7 depressed patients, before and after at least 3 weeks of clomipramine (CMI), 150 mg daily. They were compared to 7 age-matched controls. RESULTS: There was no significant difference between the untreated patients and the controls, except in the frontal region, where the [18F]-setoperone specific binding was slightly lower in patients. After CMI treatment, depression scores significantly improved and [18F]-setoperone specific binding decreased in cortical regions, suggesting receptor occupancy and/or receptor regulation, by CMI; however, no clinical score correlated with the 5-HT2 receptor measurements either in the untreated or in the treated conditions. CONCLUSIONS: These data substantiate the view that tricyclic antidepressants such as clomipramine significantly interact with cortical 5-HT2 serotoninergic receptors in actual therapeutic situations.

Adult↗
PubMed1998

Self-concept and mood: a comparative study between depressed patients with and without borderline personality disorder.

Within the framework of Self-Structure Theory, this study investigated the relationship between depressed mood and Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) on self and others descriptions, with a special emphasis on the self-structure's valence, that is, its affective, negative and/or positive content. Seventeen DSM-III-R unipolar depressed patients with associated BPD (DSM-III-R axis II) and twelve unipolar depressed patients without BPD were compared to eighteen non-psychiatric controls on four measures of evaluation and of affective discrepancy of descriptions of self and others. Subjects were administered the grid repertory technique. The analysis of the resulting two-way valence matrix, with attributions as columns, and self and others as rows, showed that depressed patients with and without BPD differed from the non-psychiatric controls with regard to negativity of the descriptions. As compared with the two other groups, depressed patients with BPD showed a distinctive pattern characterised by the joint presence of a negative view of self and a larger affective discrepancy for others, with others being conjunctively assigned positive and negative attributes. Despite some limitations, the distinctive pattern evidenced corroborates the conflicted interpersonal relationship and is in keeping with clinical theorising on BPD.

Adult↗
PubMed1998

Frontal dysfunction in neurologically normal chronic alcoholic subjects: metabolic and neuropsychological findings.

BACKGROUND: Neuropsychological and imaging studies suggest that frontal dysfunction may occur in apparently normal chronic alcoholic subjects. METHODS: To investigate this issue further, we performed neuropsychological and fluorodeoxy-glucose-PET studies in 17 chronic alcoholics without patent neurological and psychiatric complications. RESULTS: Metabolic abnormalities were found in the mediofrontal and in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, but not in the orbitofrontal cortex. Neuropsychological testing revealed significantly reduced verbal fluency and impaired performance on the Stroop test. The mediofrontal hypometabolism correlated with the reduction in verbal fluency and the time necessary to perform the interference condition of the Stroop test. The left dorsolateral prefrontal hypometabolism correlated with the number of errors on the Stroop test. CONCLUSION: These data indicate that circumscribed frontal dysfunctions may occur in chronic alcoholic subjects before clinically obvious neurological complications, and may account for some of the alcohol-related neuropsychological and behavioural impairments.

Adult↗
PubMed1997

Apolipoprotein E gene polymorphism in early and late onset bipolar patients.

To explore the involvement of apolipoprotein E gene (APO E) in major depression, we studied the APO E gene polymorphism in a sample of 156 unrelated bipolar patients and 91 healthy volunteers. This population was stratified for age at onset of the affective disorder (onset before 18 years, after 45 years and between 18 and 45 years). Early onset bipolar patients with psychotic symptoms exhibited a significant increase of epsilon4 allele frequency (28.9%) compared to either other bipolar patients (13.1%, chi2 = 6.52, df = 1, P < 0.02) or controls (12.1%, chi2 = 7.01, df = 1, P < 0.01). The association between epsilon4 and early onset bipolar disorder (BPD) with psychotic symptoms suggests that APO E gene is a risk factor for a subgroup of BPD, or influences the phenotypic expression (i.e. psychotic symptoms or age at onset) of manic depressive illness.

Adult↗
PubMed1997

Presynaptic dopaminergic function in the striatum of schizophrenic patients.

The dopaminergic hypothesis of schizophrenia postulates increased brain dopaminergic activity. Two previous studies reported increased 18F-DOPA uptake with positron emission tomography in schizophrenic patients (n = 5, n = 7). In the present study, striatal dopaminergic function was assessed in vivo in six untreated schizophrenics and seven control subjects, comparable for age and sex. The 18F-fluoro-L-DOPA (18F-DOPA) uptake rate constant Ki was determined in the caudate and putamen using coregistered positron emission tomography and magnetic resonance imaging. No difference between groups for mean Ki was found. The variability of the 18F-DOPA uptake values was higher in the caudate (p < 0.01) and in the putamen (p < 0.001) in schizophrenic patients than in control subjects, suggesting that schizophrenia is a disorder involving heterogeneous states of the striatal presynaptic dopaminergic function.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1997

The comprehension of metaphors in schizophrenia.

Metaphor comprehension was studied in schizophrenics as compared to psychiatric and nonpsychiatric controls. Subjects were asked in a two-condition forced-choice response task to detect the metaphor similar or contrary to a proverb with an abstract meaning. Schizophrenic patients were impaired in both conditions. However, the paranoid patients' performances did not differ from psychiatric and nonpsychiatric controls. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that the ability of metaphorizing is preserved in some schizophrenic patients.

Adult↗
PubMed1996

[Mania in an elderly subject: I. -- manic-depressive disorders of late onset].

Late mania may inaugurate a late-onset bipolar illness. Atypical features and organic brain abnormalities are frequently associated. Late-onset bipolar illness is apparently characterized by a strong instability of mood and a super or subsensitivity to neuroleptics and antidepressant drugs. However, there is a strong efficacy of lithium salts and lithium may be used as a curative and preventive treatment or as a therapeutic test, especially in atypical cases. The occurrence of mania in elderly people involves a specifical etiologic, therapeutic and diagnostic approach.

Age of Onset↗
PubMed1996

[Mania in an elderly subject: II. -- the evolution of manic-depressive disease].

The occurrence of mania in the elderly is under-estimated. Mania may inaugurate a late-onset bipolar illness, extend a unipolar depressive disorder or rarely continue a early-onset bipolar illness. Early-onset bipolar illness frequently disappear after 60 years or is prolonged by reccurrent depression. Late-onset bipolar illness may be preceded by slight disturbances of mood. These modalities underline two of the various evolutions of bipolar illness. Only a prospective follow-up study could specify it.

Adult↗
PubMed1995

Time course of prefrontal lobe dysfunction in severely depressed in-patients: a longitudinal neuropsychological study.

The Stroop Colour-Word Test (SCWT) and the Verbal Fluency Test (VFT), two tests that have been suggested to be particularly sensitive to prefrontal dysfunction, were administered to 23 severely depressed in-patients. Both tests were impaired in patients at inclusion, but only verbal fluency normalized with successful treatment of depression. VFT impairment is consistent with the hypothesis of a left prefrontal cortex dysfunction in depression. Moreover, the persistence of an impaired performance on SCWT in patients at discharge suggests that a selective attention deficit may persist in patients beyond a clear clinical improvement.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1995

[Mental representation of drugs: construction of two questionnaires to study patients treated with psychotropic or oral hypoglycemic drugs].

We have built two questionnaires in order to study the representation of drugs. Questionnaires have been established according to the results of an open study involving 78 subjects, whether receiving a treatment or not. These questionnaires were applied on a sample of 126 (psychiatric or diabetic) patients. In the future, we expect the questionnaires to help studying relationships between drugs representation and compliance.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

The dissociation of explicit and implicit memory in depressed patients.

Twenty-three in-patients fulfilling DSM-III-R criteria for major depressive disorder were submitted to a standard cued recall test, and to a word-stem completion test devised to assess the effect of the initial presentation without the explicit retrieval of the words being necessary. Results show that depressed patients are impaired on the cued recall task in comparison with controls matched for sex, age, and educational level. However, the two groups do not differ in the word-stem completion task. This dissociation between explicit and implicit expressions of memory disappeared when patients recovered, although they were still hospitalized and under psychotropic medication. These results are examined in the light of the distinction between effortful and automatic processes.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

Person identification and self-concept in the delusional misidentification syndrome. A case study.

This study on a delusional misidentification patient with both Frégoli symptoms and intermetamorphosis investigates the cognitive structure of others and of the self-representations with a new clustering method (HICLAS conjunctive model). Results show that this patient, free from face recognition disorders, shows severe structural anomalies in the mapping of misidentified others, and of the self. Disturbances in the cognitive structure and person identification are discussed in reference to a psychopathological explanation of the misidentification syndrome.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

[Drug discontinuation in depression].

Before stopping or starting medications in depression, the first step is a through assessment of the patient's mood disorder: past medical general and psychiatric history, psychological profile, past specific treatment history... Today some data are well demonstrated: antidepressant or lithium or carbamazepine discontinuation should be done gradually (over weeks or months) and with an intensive medical follow-up; after the acute treatment of the index depressive episode, a full therapeutic dose of the antidepressant agent should be continued for at least 4 to 6 months; antipsychotic drugs and minor tranquilizers use should be limited: combination of a neuroleptic and an antidepressant in depression with psychotic features, combination of a minor tranquilizer in depression with anxiety during the first three weeks if necessary. A contario the timing and the method of discontinuing maintenance treatment (lithium or antidepressant) have not been well studied. Literature data are discussed: frequency of recurrence during treatment discontinuation, even after long-term euthymia; possible risk for developing rapid-cycles or non response after lithium discontinuation. More precise clinical guidelines are necessary.

Antidepressive Agents↗
PubMed1993

[Special proceedings of a law project concerning "the accusation of dementia": case of Joseph Firmin nicknamed Retif (1794-1799)].

The study of a long neglected bill about the accused in a state of mental alienation debated by the legislative assembly of the french Directoire (1794-1799) following a ruling in the Joseph Firmin case. The parliamentary debate on this bill is of real historical interest, since for the first time after the french Revolution its thirteen sections propose to institute special proceedings in case of mental alienation, midway between the penal code of 1791, which does not contain such provisions and the napoleonic code of 1810, it opens the way for the wellknown section 64 of this later code which sets the rules for over a hundred and eighty years.

Criminal Law↗
PubMed1993

[Self concept: toward a cognitive approach to identity disorders].

The development of the concept of self is one of the prominent facts of 20th-century psychology; its conceptualizations are diverse. Within the field of cognitive psychology, concurrent with growing interest in comprehensive theories of personality has been the recent emergence of the self-concept. The self-concept is viewed as the cognitive structure comprised of mental representations of oneself, and responsible for their integration and processing; it appears as the cornerstone of personality. The cognitive modelling of the self-concept currently opens new directions in the approach to identity processes and their psychopathologic disturbances.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy↗
PubMed1992

Cognitive processing of contradictory statements: an experimental study of reasoning on proverbs in schizophrenia.

Twenty schizophrenic patients and 20 normal subjects matched for age, sex and verbal level were asked to identify, from a list of alternatives, the statement that was the most contradictory to each of 8 proverbs. Schizophrenics (whether severely disturbed or not) were found to be less accurate in detecting the contradictions [F(1,18) = 29.21; p less than 0.0001]. No significant differences between undifferentiated and disorganized DSM-III subtypes were observed. The greatest tolerance of contradictory statements was interpreted in terms of violation of the 'no contradiction principle' and examined in the light of a deficit in logical abilities.

Adult↗