Search PubMed⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

R Jouvent

Publications and source records attributed to R Jouvent.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1996

Attention deficits in depression: an electrophysiological marker.

EVENT-RELATED POTENTIALS were recorded in young depressed subjects and compared with results from controls. Subjects were required to respond to targets (rare high-frequency sounds) presented to a designated ear, and to ignore targets presented to the non-designated ear as well as standards (frequent low-frequency sounds) presented to either ear. The results confirm those previously obtained with elderly depressed patients, showing the same general profile of electrophysiological and behavioural differences, and in particular a substantial reduction of the N200 amplitude in response to attended targets in depressed subjects. It is suggested that the N200 component could be a marker of depression.

Adult↗
PubMed1996

Heterogeneity of information-processing alterations according to dimensions of depression: an event-related potentials study.

To identify alterations in elementary cognitive operations according to dimensions of depression, two stages of information processing, namely the response choice and the motor preparation stages, were explored using an event-related potential paradigm in two subgroups of depressed patients (retarded and blunted affect versus anxious-agitated and impulsive) compared to controls. Two results are common to all depressed patients: a slow encoding of stimuli (P1 wave) and a prolonged processing of stimulus-response compatibility (after P3b). This is compensated by a global velocity increase in stimulus evaluation or decision making (P3b) in anxious-agitated patients or, on the contrary, cumulated with its velocity decrease in retarded-blunted-affect patients. Such results could provide an explanation for the massive retardation observed in blunted-affect patients, contrary to anxious-agitated patients, whose normal reaction times may come from a very high energetical involvement at the P3b level. Results as a whole suggest that impairments in blunted-affect patients concern effort mechanisms, whereas those in anxious-agitated patients concern perceptual processes.

Adult↗
PubMed1996

Cognitive and emotional deficits in early stages of HIV infection: an event-related potentials study.

1. In order to inventory different Event-Related Potentials (ERP) modifications in HIV-infection the authors have evaluated 23 HIV-positive subjects and 12 HIV-negative subjects. ERP were recorded during an auditory oddball task. 2. Electrophysiological results showed that the latency of the N100 component of the ERP was significantly increased in HIV-positive subjects compared to the HIV-negative subjects. The latency of the N200 component of the ERP showed a similar tendency which just failed to reach significance when considering HIV-positive subjects vs HIV negative subjects. This result was in agreement with the literature which reported increased latencies in HIV infection. 3. Considering all subjects the authors have observed a correlation between the amplitude of the P300 and the emotional deficit. This correlation was stronger in subjects who presented an emotional deficit and was independent of any other psychopathological symptom. 4. The use of ERP appeared to be a sensitive technique to detect subclinical manifestations in HIV asymptomatic subjects and therefore would help to identify subjects at higher risk for developing cognitive impairments.

Adult↗
PubMed1996

Affective disturbances in Alzheimer's disease.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the emotional disturbances in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) using both a categorical and a dimensional approach. DESIGN: Prospective study. SETTING: Outpatient clinic in a neurological department from a general University Teaching Hospital. MEASURES: A semi-structured interview was used to fill in the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale, the Retardation Rating Scale for depression, the Tyrer and Covi scales for anxiety, and the Depressive Mood Scale for emotional disturbances. The cognitive status was assessed by the Mini-Mental State Examination and the Mattis Dementia Rating Scale. PATIENTS: One hundred eighteen consecutive AD outpatients fitting the criteria for probable or possible AD, according to the National Institute of Neurological and Communication Disorders and Stroke and the Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders Association, were compared with 34 community-dwelling healthy older controls and with 20 inpatients meeting the diagnostic criteria for depression according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 3rd Edition-Revised. RESULTS: No AD patient met the criteria for Major Depressive Episode or Generalized Anxiety Disorder, but 10 (8%) met the criteria for Dysthymic Disorder. AD patients scored significantly higher than the control group but lower than the depressed group for depressive and anxious symptomatology. Depressive symptomatology was correlated negatively to the cognitive status and positively to anxious symptomatology. Two main dimensions in emotional disturbances were described using the Depressive Mood Scale: Emotional Deficit (anhedonia, hypoexpressiveness) and Loss of Control (felt irritability, hyperexpressiveness). Emotional Deficit was correlated positively to the depressive symptomatology and correlated negatively to the cognitive status and the Loss of Control dimension. Loss of Control was correlated positively to the severity of the depressive and anxious symptomatology and weakly to cognitive performance. CONCLUSION: Affective changes were found frequently in AD patients, but no major affective disorder was found. The dimensional approach seems to be more appropriate than the categorical approach to describe the emotional disturbances in these patients.

Affect↗
PubMed1995

Sensation-seeking and emotional disturbances in depression: relationships and evolution.

The French abbreviated form of the sensation-seeking scale was given to 183 hospitalized depressed subjects meeting the DSM-III-R criteria for major depression. Depressed subjects, men and women, scored significantly lower than controls from the general population, paired as to age and sex, on all of the subscales. There was no relationship to the intensity of depression and anxiety. Relationships between emotional disturbances and sensation-seeking were differentiated according to the specificity of each subscale and to age and sex. There was no significant difference between baseline and after-treatment sensation-seeking scores and subjects at discharge still scored significantly lower than controls. Hypotheses on evolution at a later date after the hospitalization are made. The finding of positive relationships for some subjects between sensation-seeking and anhedonia is interpreted in regard to a compensatory process.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

Decrease of complexity in EEG as a symptom of depression.

Nonlinear dynamic analysis provides new methods for the processing of the electroencephalogram (EEG). We demonstrate here that the EEG dynamics of major depressive subjects is more predictable, that is less complex, than that of control subjects. Moreover, the consequence of treatment upon the EEG dynamics seems to be dependent on the appearance of the illness. Although the specificity of this dynamic signature for different stages of depression is to be confirmed, the assumption of a strong link between a healthy system and a high level of complexity in dynamics is further supported.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

Loss of control of pre-motor activation in anxious agitated and impulsive depressives. A clinical and ERP study.

1. Current research uses a variety of traditional validation methods in order to test the clinical expression of biological models in psychiatry. The application of these methods has resulted in a paradoxical situation which requires the definition of new objectives in biological and pharmacoclinical research: the biological specificity of new psychotropic drugs does not assume any congruence between their pharmacological and their therapeutic effects, but raises the question of the relationship between biological systems and clinical symptomatology. The dimensional description of psychopathological disorders may be more appropriate to biological studies in psychiatry. 2. A study was undertaken on a population of twenty-one in-patients fulfilling the DSM III-R criteria for major depressive episode. They were divided into two groups on the basis of contrasting clinical dimensions: anxious-agitation and impulsiveness versus retardation and affective blunting. 3. Significant clinical differences between the two groups on mood profiles were echoed by contrasts in event-related potentials during a go-nogo task: only anxious agitated and impulsive patients developed an abnormal cortical activity, as measured by contingent negative variation (CNV), in the nogo condition. 4. This paper suggests how a paradigm with control of motor action leads to specify premotor activation abnormalities in the agitated impulsive depression subtype.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

Nicotine dependence and motives for smoking in depression.

Smoking variables were assessed in female (n = 48) and male (n = 28) French hospitalized depressed smokers. Nicotine dependence, motives for smoking, and emotional situations in which depressed smokers were likely to smoke were compared with those of female (n = 36) and male (n = 60) nondepressed smokers from the general population. Depressed smokers scored higher than controls on nicotine dependence, and on stimulant and sedative smoking; they also reported that they were more likely to smoke in negative emotional situations. Sedative smoking decreased significantly between admission and discharge. Sedative smoking is a strong reason for smoking among depressed smokers regardless of degree of dependence, whereas stimulant smoking is positively correlated with degree of dependence. Nicotine dependence is also significantly correlated with anhedonia, and its relationship to depression is discussed in regard to nicotine action on hedonic systems.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

Nonparametric estimation of population characteristics of the kinetics of lithium from observational and experimental data: individualization of chronic dosing regimen using a new Bayesian approach.

A population analysis of the kinetics of lithium was performed from experimental and observational data in 113 subjects in order to propose a new approach for lithium dosage individualization. The kinetics of lithium is described by a two-compartment model. Age, body weight, height, and serum creatinine are included as covariates. Population analysis was performed by the nonparametric maximum likelihood method, which provides an estimate of the distribution of the five kinetic parameters and covariates. Mean lithium clearance was 1.50 L/h with a coefficient of variation (CV) of 38%, and was found to increase with body weight. Results were consistent with those of earlier studies and confirm a large interindividual variability. Data from a separate group of 35 patients were used to validate results: the estimated a priori and on covariate conditional distributions of the measured 24-h serum lithium concentration following a single dose were consistent with the corresponding measurements. A Bayesian approach for individualizing dosing schemes is proposed. This approach is based on minimization of a risk function expressing the deviation of the trough concentration at steady-state from the therapeutic range.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1994

[Stress, blood pressure reactivity and arterial hypertension: not an unambiguous relation].

UNLABELLED: In order to determine the different ways the hypertensives' blood pressure would react during mental stress, 49 patients, 27 women and 22 men, were submitted at the Stroop Word Colour Conflict Test. Their haemodynamic parameters were recorded by finger photoplethysmography (Finapres device), with equidistant sampling (2 Hz). Temporal and spectral analysis showed evidence of: a quick and short elevation of BP and HR and a greater variability of SBP, as shown by the increase of the MF (66-128 mHZ) module. Patients can be divided into 3 clusters according to the reactivity of SBP. Group I (N, mean +/- sigma) 13, + 32.7 +/- 8 mmHg; group II 24, + 10.3 +/- 6; group III 12, -10.2 +/- 7. They were comparable on anxiety level and on any demographic and clinical feature. In group III, the higher NA at rest, the bigger the fall of SBP when stressed. The cognitive efficiency of these patients is increased by stress. Spectral analysis: Mid frequency (66-128 mHz) components are markedly higher in group III, before, during and after SWCCT showing a higher sympathetic tonus. CONCLUSION: The reactivity of BP is not homogeneous. One fourth of our patients showed a decrease of SBP during the cognitive treatment stage of the test without showing a decrease of sympathetic tone. Anxiety level is not predictive of BP's response.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

[Psychological theories on the vulnerability to depression].

The problem of psychological vulnerability refers back to the dysymetric interactions between biological, life-event and personality factors. The term "personality" must be defined in terms of three factors: differential characteristics of the primary traits, "temperament" from the purely biological stand-point, and psychodynamic organization. The following discussion will deal solely with notions of temperament and psychodynamic organization. The renewed interest in the notion of temperament for the constitution of depression has been evoked in a number of recent studies, and allows an integrative approach of the biological phenomena. From the stand-point of psychodynamic organization, we should be less concerned with a strictly etiological role than with the mechanisms involved: loss of the object, in the neurotic model (depressive neurosis?) absence of the object (severe narcissistic disorders). This psychodynamic clinical approach must also take into account the triggering or unmasking effects of the depressive state itself on the underlying personality structure.

Depressive Disorder↗
PubMed1993

Emotional and psychopathological disturbances in HIV-infection.

1. The evaluation of emotional disturbances, depression and anxiety in 25 HIV-Positive paired with 25 HIV-Negative male homosexuals and a control group of 15 HIV-Negative male heterosexual have shown the presence of emotional perturbations and especially of an emotional blunting, in absence of depressive or anxious episode in HIV-Positive subjects. 2. Emotional perturbations were the lowest in the HIV-Negative heterosexual group. 3. These results raise the question of the emotional deficit as an adaptative process or as the direct action of the virus. 4. Its relationship with the other emotional perturbations and their impact on the evolution of the disease are discussed.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1993

[Emotional disorders in HIV infection].

Psychiatric and neurological symptoms have been the target of many studies, but the emotional and behavioral modifications in HIV infection remain quite unknown. Working on the emotional dimensions and the heterogeneity of depressive mood, we were interested in evaluating the emotional symptomatology in HIV infected patients. Fifteen HIV-positive and fifteen HIV-negative homosexual men paired by age and educational level were studied. They were seen by two trained psychologists who assessed depression, anxiety and mood dimensions with the MADRS depression scale, Covi's anxiety scale, Depressive Mood scale, Abrams and Taylor scale for Emotional Blunting and Retardation scale. HIV-positive subjects had significantly higher scores of emotional blunting: anhedonia and hypoexpressiveness. Scores of depression, anxiety, irritability and hyperexpressiveness were not significantly different between both groups. Hypoexpressiveness scores were correlated to the CDC stages of the disease. This means that the emotional deficit seems to increase with the course of the disease, and is present in the absence of depression or anxiety. The question of the origin of this emotional blunting can be raised: is it the result of an adaptative behavior and/or the action of the virus on the central nervous system? Further studies are needed to confirm these results and answer this question.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1992

Theoretical considerations and perspectives on the onset of action of moclobemide.

The aim of this paper is to focus on methodological problems related to clinical studies on the onset of action of antidepressants, especially moclobemide. The methodological discussion proposed focuses on: --global efficacy as a function of time; --proposals for a specific approach to the study of the onset of action; --quality of the response and onset of action; --the dimensional level and the onset of action.

Antidepressive Agents↗
PubMed1992

The dimensional approach to clinical psychopharmacology: a polysemous concept.

The last decade has seen significant progress in the development and specific clinical application of selective psychotropes. The dimensional approach to clinical psychopharmacology views the behavioral targets of psychotropes as phenomena existing on a continuum and as components, in varying degrees, of most psychopathologies. The modern concept of dimension has been used in different contexts. In psychology it has a mathematical sense, whereas in biological psychiatry it is associated more with biological function. This paper reviews these two concepts and the recent models attempting to merge them into one. The heuristic value of the dimensional approach, as well as some of its pitfalls and new avenues of research, are discussed.

Adult↗