De la clinique au « terrain fétide et palpitant de la vie » : une mise en perspective psychiatrique de la physiologie clinique

Claude Bernard, and his master François Magendie, by the constitution of physiological science, has brought the establishment of a unifying representation system in the field of medicine. According to these representations, the diseases and the therapeutics would be considered by medical doctors as following the same laws of physiology. Physiology would be the condition of a real scientific medicine. How this positioning may be applied to psychiatry? To answer this question, this article proposes first of all to summarize the principal concepts structuring clinical physiology since Claude Bernard. These concepts are those of the “milieu intérieur”, its stability and its regulation. The principles of this regulation system introduced by Claude Bernard lead us to consider him as the first modern systemic physiologist. Moreover these principles of regulation offer the possibility to understanding in an original way the processes of adaptation and acclimatization of an organism. This article then to analyze how these physiological concepts can be applied to psychiatry, including a discussion on the distinction of normal and pathological (by underlining that the difficulty in defining the disease is not specific to mental disorders), by providing a physiological perspective of the notion of syndrome for linking together in a practical way, the requirements of scientific medicine to that of rigorous clinical medicine.     

Validation de la version française de la Binge Eating Scale : étude de sa structure factorielle,de sa consistance interne et de sa validité de construit en population clinique et non clinique

ObjectiveThe Binge Eating Scale is a widely used scale to assess binge eating disorder in obese patients. Until now, this scale has not been validated on a French population, and no psychometrically sound tool assesses binge eating disorder in the French. This study aimed to test the psychometric properties of a French version of the Binge Eating Scale by establishing its factor structure, internal consistency, and construct validity in both a non-clinical population and a clinical population (obese patients who are candidates for bariatric surgery).MethodsA total of 553 non-clinical subjects and 63 morbidly obese patients who were candidates for bariatric surgery were assessed with the BES and the Bulimic Investigatory Test, Edinburgh or BITE (which assesses both binge eating behaviours and use of inappropriate compensatory behaviours). We tested the factor structure of the instrument, its internal consistency, its construct validity with measures of binge eating, and its construct validity with measures of inappropriate compensatory behaviours to avoid weight gain. In 47 out of the 63 obese patients, we assessed binge eating disorder (SCID).ResultsIn the non-clinical population, the BES had a one-factor structure (which accounted for 61% of the variance), excellent internal consistency (α = 0.93), and high construct validity with measures of binge eating. In this population, construct validity with measures of inappropriate compensatory behaviours was confirmed in overweight and obese subjects (P = 0.42), but not in underweight and optimal weight subjects (P < 0.001). In obese patients candidates for bariatric surgery, we demonstrated that the BES had a one-factor structure (which accounted for 46% of the variance), had high internal consistency (α = 0.88) and high construct validity with measures of binge eating and good construct validity with measures of inappropriate compensatory behaviours to avoid weight gain. In the subpopulation of 47 obese patients, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value were respectively 75%, 88.4%, 37.5% and 97.4% (BES threshold = 18).DiscussionIn this study, we validated a psychometrically sound French version of the Binge Eating Scale, both in a non-clinical and a clinical sample. The psychometric properties of the French version of the BES are comparable to its original version with a one-factor structure. The BES is a useful tool to assess binge eating disorder in obese patients (e.g., bariatric surgery candidates), but might not differentiate between binge eating disorder and bulimia nervosa in underweight and optimal weight subjects.     

Psychopathologie de l’énonciation dans le champ de la clinique de l’agir : la notion de subjectivité sans sujet

Objectives

To study the characteristics of a specific psychological mode of functioning, subjectivity without a subject, generating non-motivated behaviours, in a setting where consciousness and mental representations are erased in subjects having committed an offence or a crime, sexual or other.

Une clinique de l’apotemnophilie

IntroductionThe term of apotemnophily was used for the first time by Money in 1977 to name patients who desire an amputation of a healthy limb.CaseWe present a case report of a thirty-two years old military woman, who was hospitalized in a neurology service because of a chronic pain syndrome. The disorders began with a knee trauma complicated by chronic pain causing multiple complaints. At first sight, we are challenged by her desire to amputate her lower limb.DiscussionA literature review highlights controversial positions regarding the nosographic place of apotemnophily: initially classified within paraphilias, the desire to amputation of a healthy limb was later identified by some authors as a body integrity and identity disorders and then studied as a neurological disorder. The clinic of our patient open minded our diagnostic reasoning to other clinical entities such as a depressive disorder with melancholic and psychotic characteristics, an illness anxiety disorder, a body dysmorphic disorder.ConclusionBeyond the controversies, the main risk for these patients is to meet a doctor who decides to treat them with a mutilatory surgical gesture. The therapeutic challenge is to create the conditions of reception of this complaint and to hear the identity claim that it carries. The multidisciplinary approach associating psychiatrist, clinical psychologist and sometimes surgeons when it's appropriate, must prevent medical nomadism and must try to relieve the patient from the suffering of identity.     

Étude qualitative de l’expérience de la formation en hypnose clinique pour les professionnels de santé

ObjectiveTraining in clinical hypnosis leads to important transformations in healthcare professionals, in their professional practices as well as in their personal lives. The objective of this study was to explore how health professionals experience the transformations that result from such a training.MethodSemi-structured interviews with health professionals from France and Europe were conducted. The qualitative method used was Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Purposive sampling required to include participants from different professions, experience and regions of origin. They had already completed training in clinical hypnosis at different teaching institutions.ResultsTen participants were included. The analysis showed four meta-themes of experience. First, it revealed participants’ motivations for training in clinical hypnosis as one's desire to improve one's practice, leading to extraordinary discoveries, at a particular timing in their life. Second, participants described that hypnosis sometimes set the ground for a relationship verging on the more “intimate”, therefore requiring greater caution so as not to disrupt the patient/healthcare professional relationship. Third, some participants experienced unforeseen personal fulfilment, better self-regulation of emotions and improved quality of life as well as greater comfort at the workplace. Finally, this study shed light on two limitations of training in clinical hypnosis as it can sometimes generate stress for the participants and/or result in bring about potential harmful effects: one of the risks being that the trainer might cross some ethical lines.DiscussionThe level of personal change experienced by the participants is similar to some changes induced by personal psychotherapy. For several participants, issues of power and vulnerability in the relationship using hypnosis were associated with a feeling of instability during the training. In hypnosis, the management of an asymmetrical relationship involves a two-way risk: vulnerability of the hypnotized person to the all-powerful relationship of their therapist as well as destabilization of therapists by the reduction of power asymmetry during hypnotic work with their patients.     

Impact de la formation théorique et clinique sur les attitudes de stigmatisation des étudiants en médecine envers la psychiatrie et la pathologie psychiatrique

Objective

The aim of the study was to explore whether a medical student education program and clinical posting in psychiatry had an impact on medical students’ stigmatizing attitudes towards psychiatry and psychiatric disorders.

Les enfants à haut potentiel en difficulté : apports de la recherche clinique

We have been sensitized to children with high intellectual potential (HIP) having difficulties given the number of children consulting in our outpatient medico-psychological centres for scholastic problems (possibly leading to school failure), anxiety disorders or behavioral disorders such as attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and in which a high intellectual potential was discovered during psychological assessments. It is the contrast, and more precisely the paradox, between the high intellectual potential of these children and their scholastic difficulties (including school failure), and the psychic suffering expressed by some of them, which led us to question, challenge and propose therapeutic and educational care adapted to these children. It is in this context that we created in December 2005 the CNAHP (National Center for Assistance to High Potential children and adolescents) which is a public centre integrated into the hospital-university department of child and adolescent psychiatry at Rennes. It is noteworthy that not all children with HIP have difficulties, and children with school failure or behavioral problems are not always children with HIP. However, it is necessary not to minimize the problem raised by children with HIP with difficulties by ignoring its frequency or by considering that these children are “intelligent” enough to manage by themselves and do not need to be helped, whereas some of them can show school failure and even be de-scholarized. Indeed, based on the definition of the World Health Organization (WHO) of an intellectual Quotient (IQ) above 130 (level corresponding to a statistical threshold), the frequency of children with HIP represents 2.3% of the population of schoolchildren aged 6 to 16. The frequency is therefore not so rare. However, it remains to be determined by French epidemiological studies what is the actual frequency of children with difficulties within a population of children with HIP. The analysis of the CNAHP research data from a clinical population (children with HIP consulting for difficulties) highlights that children with HIP can show major school problems (including school failure, defined here as having or foreseeing repetition of a grade), which corresponds to 7.5% of 611 children with HIP consulting at the CNAHP) and socioemotional problems (emotional regulation disorders) in relation to their high intellectual potential. In particular, anxiety disorders were the most frequent psychiatric disorders observed in this population (40.5%) and were significantly associated with high verbal potential. This significant association requires further studies to avoid establishing a simplistic unidirectional and reductive linear cause-effect relationships. Indeed, a high verbal potential can elicit and/or reinforce anxiety-producing representations, but anxiety disorders may also lead to a defensive over investment of verbal language. The results are discussed in this article and suggest that scholastic and/or psychological difficulties encountered by some children with HIP can be related to their high intellectual potential. It is necessary to develop therapeutic and educational care adapted to these children from a better understanding, based on research results, of their possible difficulties but also cognitive abilities. Even when children with HIP have scholastic and/or psychological difficulties, some of their cognitive skills can be preserved contrary to appearances, with for example, as seen in the CNAHP results, excellent attentional capacities shown by cognitive tests contrasting with behavioral attention deficit reported by parents. These skills are important to identify as they are resources which support the therapeutic and educational project. It is probably through an articulation among professionals from national education, health and research, in alliance with the family (parents, child, and siblings), that advances will be made. In the same way that professionals have been interested in children with intellectual disabilities, it is important to be concerned by children with HIP and difficulties located at the other end of the continuum. It is a question of ethics which concerns both caregivers and teachers. It is also a societal issue that concerns all of us given that the expression of high intellectual and creative potential in children may be essential to the societal development of innovative strategies and each nation's future. Finally, the discussion can be extended to all children, independent of their potential. What we learn from children with HIP and difficulties can be applied to each child: it is important at family, school and societal levels to facilitate the expression of the potential of children, to value their skills, and to help them to remove possible inhibitions of their potential based on individualized projects. The acceptance of singularity and differences in children can contribute to tolerance and the development of creativity, in the interest of the subject and of society.     

Pulsion et clinique de la déambulation dans un syndrome de type Alzheimer : une lecture lacanienne

AimsThis article addresses the issue of wandering in Alzheimer's disease from a psychoanalytic point of view, taking into account the importance of the spatial dimension in psychic dynamics.MethodAfter having presented wandering from a behavioral point of view, it is discussed from a metapsychological perspective, making use of A. & G. Haddad's concept of the “viatoric drive” and as well as J. Lacan's reflections on “the wandering of the journey” and “the wandering of desire.” The clinical vignette of Mr. M. in a workshop of therapeutic mediation through art helps us illustrate the unconscious psychic movements at play in walking.ResultsThree subjective markers emerge: wandering reveals the subject's difficult in orienting himself in both physical and psychological space, demonstrating a form of excitation that is not supported by the viatoric drive; “the wandering of the journey” makes it possible to relocate the place of the Other in the Imaginary; “the wandering of desire” incites the subject to repetition through the play of the drives.DiscussionNeurodegenerative disease is an obstacle to wandering. Art-therapy workshops can help Alzheimer's patients with the reorganization of wandering, where unconscious knowledge would prevail over the excitation of ambulation, thus suggesting, for the subject, the possibility of a structuring “elsewhere.”ConclusionThinking of mediated workshops as places of creation for the subject opens up the possibility of inhabiting one's wandering, considered as expressions of a journey and of desire.     

« Le miroir de la haine ». La prise en charge pénitentiaire de la radicalisation : analyse clinique et criminologique de 112 personnes placées sous main de justice

The implementation of the anti-terrorism plan in the prison administration allowed the study of clinical and criminological settings of radicalized 112 people placed in open and secure custody. Analysis of their clinical profile and criminological helped to highlight the high rate of common crime (75% of subjects) as well as four special criminological profiles: ambitious offenders, criminal network converts, people in precarious situations, severely mentally ill. Finally, we observe commonalties in terms of psychic functioning: a psychopathological axis (identity conflict, anger, hatred) and vulnerability factors (mothers with somatic diseases, absent fathers, large family, low educational level, delinquent contacts, criminal records). A change in the expression of their radicalization has also been observed and discussed in the light of professional postures involved.     

Diagnostic clinique et moléculaire de la myopathie facioscapulo-humérale de type 1 (FSHD1) en 2012

IntroductionDiagnosis of facioscapulohumeral dystrophy type 1 (FSHD1) is supported by a suggestive clinical presentation and associated with a heterozygous contraction of the D4Z4 repeat array on chromosome 4q35.State of the artThe FSHD1 phenotype has a widely variable course with great inter- and intrafamilial heterogeneity. Three clinical forms can be distinguished: the classical phenotype associated with four to seven repeat units (RU) and a variable course, a severe infantile form with one to three RU, and a mild phenotype associated with borderline UR (8 to 10 RU). At the molecular level, for D4Z4 contraction to be pathogenic, it needs to occur on a specific chromosomal background, namely on the 4qA allelic variant of chromosome 4. In most cases, once FSHD is clinically suspected, the diagnosis can be genetically confirmed with a DNA test using Southern Blotting and hybridization to a set of probes. However, diagnosis of FSHD1 remains challenging. Firstly, some patients may present with an atypical phenotype with highly focal or unusual symptoms. Secondly, there are potential pitfalls in the genetic diagnosis of FSHD resulting in false positive or false negative results. In the absence of genetic confirmation, other investigations, mainly EMG and muscle biopsy, are needed to rule out another diagnosis. In cases with no clear diagnosis and a permissive chromosome without contraction, FSHD2 may be suspected.PerspectivesMolecular combing is a new technique which permits visualization and sizing of the D4Z4 repeat array on its genetic background on stretched single DNA fibers by fluorescence microscopy. This tool will improve genetic diagnosis in FSHD patients.ConclusionDiagnosis of FSHD1 is mainly supported by clinical features. Clinicians need to be aware of unusual presentations of this disease. The wide spectrum of intrafamilial variability and the lack of good correlation between genotype and phenotype present challenges for genetic counseling and prognostication. More studies are needed concerning penetrance and genotype–phenotype correlation.     

Determinación de la temperatura de respuesta nociceptiva sobre la cola de ratones albinos de la cepa Balb/c

IntroductionDesigns for determining nociceptive response in rodents are of great use in neurology and experimental neuroscience. Immersing mice's tails in warm water is one of the most widely used procedures to evaluate this response; however, a wide range of temperatures are used in different studies. Knowing the temperature that produces a powerful nociceptive response in the tail of BALB/c mice is extremely useful.MethodsEight 2-month-old male BALB/c mice were used. A 14-cm high beaker was filled with water up to 13 cm. The animals’ tails were immersed in the container with a starting temperature of 36 °C. The water temperature was raised in 1 °C increments until we identified the temperatures that produced nociceptive responses. That response was determined by counting the time taken before the mouse shook its tail to remove it from the water.ResultsSix of the 8 mice began shaking their tails at the temperature of 51 °C. All animals removed their tails from the water at the temperatures of 54 °C, 55 °C, and 56 °C, taking a mean time of 8.54, 7.99, and 5.33 seconds, respectively. ANOVA applied to the response times for each of the 3 temperatures indicated revealed a value of F=2.8 (P=.123).ConclusionsThe response time was statistically similar for the temperatures of 54 °C, 55 °C, and 56 °C; however, the data were less dispersed for the latter temperature.     

Approche psychométrique de la métacognition : étude pilote en population clinique

Background

Metacognition describes the process of thinking about one's own thought processes. This concept was introduced by Flavell in 1979 and has since been widely developed in the cognitive approach to mood and anxiety disorders. As it happens, many recent studies have underlined the links between metacognition and anxio-depressive symptoms, pointing out the interest of assessing its various dimensions. The short form of the Metacognitions Questionnaire is a brief multidimensional measure of a range of metacognitive processes and metacognitive beliefs about worry and cognition relevant to the vulnerability to and the maintenance of emotional disorders. The aim of this study was twofold: firstly to adapt and validate a French version of the short form of the Metacognitions Questionnaire (MCQ-30) and to assess its psychometric properties in a clinical sample, and secondly to investigate metacognitive predictors of anxiety and depression in this sample.

Pour une clinique différentielle des psychoses et des usages du pharmakon. Les cas particuliers de la schizophrénie et de la mélancolie

Aims

This paper focuses on self-medication, drug addiction, and their ambivalent effects, justifying a return to the concept of the pharmacon. More specifically, it addresses the way in which schizophrenic or melancholic subjects use the pharmacon concept to cope with their respective issues.

La alteración de la mielina en la enfermedad de Alexander

Introduction

Alexander disease (AxD) is a type of leukodystrophy. Its pathological basis, along with myelin loss, is the appearance of Rosenthal bodies, which are cytoplasmic inclusions in astrocytes. Mutations in the gene coding for GFAP have been identified as a genetic basis for AxD. However, the mechanism by which these variants produce the disease is not understood.