[Barriers to access to care evaluation scale (bace-3) psychometric properties of the french version in a naturalistic ambulatory psychiatric community setting]. / Les barrières à l'accès aux soins : validation de la BACE-3 française.

OBJECTIVES: To translate into French and validate the BACE-3 scale (Barriers to Care Evaluation) and describe the barriers to access to care in mental health settings. METHODS: The instrument was translated into French with its author's authorisation and her supervision. Three outpatient consultation centres and two day hospitals in the same geographical region were involved. We included patients aged between 18 and 6years under regular follow-up with psychiatrists and diagnosed with a psychotic disorder, a bipolar disorder, a mood disorder, a personality disorder, an anxiety disorder or a somatoform disorder, all according to ICD-10 criteria. To be included subjects further had to have sought some health care support in the last twelve months or be be regularly treated in a continuous way at the time of inclusion. RESULTS: One hundred twenty-one patients were successively included during a regular consultation. The exploratory factor analysis of the 30-item BACE-3 yielded to a method factor (items that could only be answered by patients with a family and/or at work were recoded) and two clinically meaningful factors were named, Stigmatisation and Cognitive Bias and Denial. We found that the first factor was nicely in line with the factors we had extracted from the Internalized Stigma Mental Illness (ISMI) scale in the same sample. This provided an external validation of the BACE but it was difficult to conclude any further given the limited size of our sample. CONCLUSIONS: Barriers to care need to be addressed by clinicians. Internal and external validity properties of the BACE-3 scale show it can be used in French-speaking populations of outpatients suffering from mental health problems.

Narrative enhancement and cognitive therapy (NECT) to improve social functioning in people with serious mental illness: study protocol for a stepped-wedge cluster randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Self-stigma is highly prevalent in serious mental illness (SMI) and is associated with poorer clinical and functional outcomes. Narrative enhancement and cognitive therapy (NECT) is a group-based intervention combining psychoeducation, cognitive restructuring and story-telling exercises to reduce self-stigma and its impact on recovery-related outcomes. Despite evidence of its effectiveness on self-stigma in schizophrenia-related disorders, it is unclear whether NECT can impact social functioning. METHODS: This is a 12-centre stepped-wedge cluster randomized controlled trial of NECT effectiveness on social functioning in SMI, compared to treatment as usual. One hundred and twenty participants diagnosed with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or borderline personality disorder will be recruited across the 12 sites. The 12 centres participating to the study will be randomized into two groups: one group (group 1) receiving the intervention at the beginning of the study (T0) and one group (group 2) being a control group for the first 6 months and receiving the intervention after (T1). Outcomes will be compared in both groups at T0 and T1, and 6-month and 12-month outcomes for groups 1 and 2 will be measured without a control group at T2 (to evaluate the stability of the effects over time). Evaluations will be conducted by assessors blind to treatment allocation. The primary outcome is personal and social performance compared across randomization groups. Secondary outcomes include self-stigma, self-esteem, wellbeing, quality of life, illness severity, depressive symptoms and personal recovery. DISCUSSION: NECT is a promising intervention for reducing self-stigma and improving recovery-related outcomes in SMI. If shown to be effective in this trial, it is likely that NECT will be implemented in psychiatric rehabilitation services with subsequent implications for routine clinical practice. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03972735 . Trial registration date 31 May 2019.

[Suicidal risk prevention in schizophrenia: Importance of family psychoeducation]. / Prévention du risque suicidaire dans la schizophrénie : importance de la psychoéducation des familles.

OBJECTIVES: Although mortality by suicide in schizophrenia seems to have decreased in some countries over the last 30 years, it remains much higher than in the general population. Studies have shown this risk to impact around 5% of patients, corresponding to a risk almost 2.5 times higher than in the general population. Family psychoeducation in schizophrenia has been demonstrated to lead to symptom reductions and to an improvement of the quality of life, two factors that should contribute to decreasing the suicidal risk. Therefore, if families attend an efficient psychoeducation program, we can expect a decrease in the patient suicidal risk. Attending a family psychoeducation program at the beginning of the disease would also be associated with a stronger preventive effect on suicidal mortality. The objective of this study is to describe the suicide attempt rate of patients who suffer from schizophrenia before and one year after one of their relatives participated to the family psychoeducation program Profamille. METHOD: We performed a retrospective study on 1209 people who attended the Profamille (V3.2 version) Family Psychoeducation Program. This program has 2 modules: an initial training module of 14 weekly or fortnightly sessions, and a consolidation module of 4 sessions over 2 years. Sessions last 4 hours and follow a precise and structured course. Data were collected from 40 different centers in France, Belgium and Switzerland and were based on participants assessed at the beginning and one year after the first module. Self-assessment from the relatives participating in the program provided the measure of patients' suicide attempts. An assessment at T0 explored the attempts over the 12 months before the beginning of the program while the assessment at T1 analyzed those during the 12 months following the end of the Program. The Chi2 test was used to compare the suicide attempt rates for each period, using a significance threshold of 0.05. Since the risk of suicide is greater in the first years of the illness, rates of attempts are also calculated according to the age of disorder. The analysis was carried out with the statistical software R. RESULTS: The number of participants reporting that their relative had attempted suicide in the previous 12 months decreased from 41 to 21. The annual attempts rate was evaluated at 6.4 % before the Profamille program and decreased to 2.4 % a year after the end of the program (P=0.0003). The reduction of the attempt rate was observed even for patients with schizophrenia for more than 10 years. CONCLUSION: This study shows the positive impact of Profamille on reducing the rate of suicide attempts in patients with schizophrenia. It has been shown that the risk is highest at the beginning of the disorder. Therefore, based on our results, it would seem appropriate to propose the Profamille program at an early stage.

[Discrimination perceived by people with a diagnosis of schizophrenic disorders. INternational study of DIscrimination and stiGma Outcomes (INDIGO): French results]. / La discrimination vécue par les personnes ayant reçu un diagnostic de troubles schizophréniques. Premiers résultats français de l'étude INDIGO.

INTRODUCTION: The INDIGO study (INternational study of DIscrimination and stiGma Outcomes) aims at assessing the impact of schizophrenic disorders diagnosis on privacy, social and professional life, in terms of discrimination. In the general population, and even among health and social professionals, erroneous negative stereotypes (double personality, dangerosity) lead to high social distance. And this has an impact on various parts of daily life: employment, housing, compliance, self-esteem… About a tenth of the adult population suffers from mental disorders at any one time. These disorders now account for about 12% of the global impact of disability, and this will rise to 15% by the year 2020. People living with schizophrenia, for example, experience reduced social participation, whilst public images of mental illness and social reactions add a dimension of suffering, which has been described as a "second illness". Stigmatizing attitudes and discriminatory behavior among the general population against people with severe mental illness are common in all countries. Globally, little is known of effective interventions against stigma. It is clear that the negative effects of stigma can act as formidable barriers to active recovery. METHODOLOGY: The INDIGO study intends to establish detailed international data on how stigma and discrimination affect the lives of people with a diagnosis of schizophrenia. The first aim of the INDIGO study is to conduct qualitative and quantitative interviews with 25 people with a diagnosis of schizophrenia in each participating site, to elicit information on how the condition affects their everyday lives, with a focus upon sites in Europe. The second is to gather data for all participating countries on the laws, policies and regulations which set a clear distinction between people with a diagnosis of mental illness and others, to establish an international profile of such discrimination. A new scale (Discrimination and Stigma Scale [DISC]), used in a face-to-face setting was developed. Interviewers asked service users to comment on how far their mental disorder has affected key areas of their lives, including work, marriage and partnerships, housing, leisure, and religious activities. For country-level information, staff at each national site gathered the best available data on whether special legal, policy or administrative arrangements are made for people with a diagnosis of mental illness. These items included, for example, information on access to insurance, financial services, driving licenses, voting, jury service, or travel visas. The INDIGO study is conducted within the framework of the WPA global program to fight stigma and discrimination because of schizophrenia. French interviews occurred in two sites (Lille and Nice) on a sample of 25 patients. RESULTS: First, expressed disadvantages are high for several items (all relations, work and training, housing). In addition, we wish to highlight three specific points: almost half of the participants (46%) suffer from not being respected because of contacts with services, 88% of them felt rejected by people who know their diagnosis, and 76% hide/conceal their diagnosis. Positive experienced discrimination was rare. Two thirds of participants anticipated discrimination for job seeking and close personal relationships, sometimes with no experienced discrimination. CONCLUSIONS: This study, one of the rare in France adopting the point of view of a stigmatized group, revealed the numerous impacts of a diagnosis of schizophrenic disorders on everyday life. Comparisons between French and international results confirmed that the situation is not different in France, and even highlighted the extent of the stigmatization in the country.

[Mental Health of elderly people: The prevalence and representations of psychiatric disorders]. / La Santé Mentale des personnes âgées : Prévalence et représentations des troubles psychiques.

Upon the national data basis of the huge study "Mental Health in General Population", elaborated by the WHO Collaborating Centre, our research tries to identify the particularities of the advanced years population. The increasing number of the elderly in France and all over the world, as well as the demographic evolution prospects, truly justify our interest for them. A group of subjects older than 65 years old - representing 21,1% of the general population - was divided into two parts and the 65-74 years old (12.6%) - the 75 old years old and more (8.5%) - and was compared to the population between 18 and 74 years old (78.9%) who answered this investigation. The aim of our study was to detect the prevalence of the main psychic troubles of the elderly (depression, anxiety, addiction and psychiatric disorders), with a psychiatric tool, the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI). We also wanted to perceive how their perceptions and representations of the behaviours and clinical symptoms of the psychic troubles could be different from the ones of younger people. Thus, and according to the answers "normal/abnormal", "dangerous/not dangerous" linked to each item, we measured the possible difference between the answers and the representations of the general population towards the elderly. The elderly are generally confronted to multiple psychosocial stress factors (decrease of the cognitive performances, decline of the sensory abilities, drop of the social relationships, change of status, succession of loss and breach as well as the cessation of the professional activity and its network, which may favour the emergence of troubles. According to this, a higher rate of psychic troubles among the elderly than in the general investigated population, may be suspected. However, the study in general population points out that the prevalence of persons suffering from at least one trouble with the MINI declines among the subjects belonging to the highest brackets: 34.4% for the 18-64 years old, 23.2% for the 65-74 years, and 22.9% for the elderly, 75 years old and more. Anxiety decreases with the ageing (23.4% among the less than 65 years old, instead of 12.7% for the 75 years and more) as well as the addictive behaviours and the psychotic disorders (3.1% for the less than 65 years old, instead of 1.1% for the 75 years old and more). In the register of the social representations, a few differences appear also between the elderly - from 65 to 74 years old and 75 years old and more - and the majors under 65 years old: For the spectrum: T.P.S.A (sadness, tears, suicide, anxiety), the elderly consider these situations as pathological more often. The withdrawal behaviours are likely more perceived as "abnormal" by the elderly; The delusion, the hallucinations, the "odd" behaviours and talks are less often called "dangerous/non-dangerous", which leads to a rather different way of considering the elderly. Paramount the classical allowed image of the elderly - fearful, distrustful, intolerant towards any transgression and selfishly centred on their own the study reveals new conditions particularly in pointing out, among the elderly, less fear towards violent behaviours and more toleration towards the addicted subjects.

[Treatment of clozapine-induced granulocytopenia with lithium (two observations)]. / Correction par le lithium des neutropénies induites par la clozapine (deux cas).

Despite the availability of new treatments, the antipsychotic effectiveness of clozapine has not been matched yet. Unfortunately, its regulation is limited by the side effects. The most detrimental is the hematologic toxicity (neutropenia and agranulocytosis) which requires a regular biological monitoring. Treatment with clozapine must be stopped in those cases of secondary granulocytopenia for about 3% of the patients. The current psychiatric drug lithium carbonate has an opposite effect: it can induce leukocytosis. Thus, lithium carbonate is administered in leukopenia, as well as in many hematologic and immunological diseases. However, few teams have used lithium in order to alleviate clozapine-induced granulocytopenia. We report here 2 patients who developed severe neutropenia (neutrophil count<1.5 yen 10 (9)/L) and for whom the use of lithium enabled us to continue the treatment by clozapine. The first patient had a granulocyte rate constitutionally low which rapidly decreased with clozapine. Thanks to the administration of lithium, he recovered quickly a normal blood cell count, which in fact was much higher than his normal rate. According to our research, it's the first time that lithium is reported to be so efficacious in a patient with such a low rate of granulocytes before treatment. It may be that clozapine is not used for those kinds of patients. The second patient developed granulocytopenia after one year of treatment with clozapine. The use of lithium increased so much the number of granulocytes that we continued the treatment with clozapine alone. After 4 months, there is no reappearance of granulocytopenia. We must take into account the partial and contradictory reports in the literature. However, if this result is confirmed, it could be of a high interest to extend the prescription of clozapine, the most effective current antipsychotic drug.