Validation of laughter for diagnosis and evaluation of depression.

BACKGROUND: In the medical field, laughter has been studied for its beneficial effects on health and as a therapeutic method to prevent and treat major medical diseases. However, very few works, if any, have explored the predictive potential of laughter and its potential use as a diagnostic tool. METHOD: We registered laughs of depressed patients (n=30) and healthy controls (n=20), in total 934 laughs (517 from patients and 417 from controls). All patients were tested by the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS). The processing was made in Matlab, with calculation of 8 variables per laugh plosive. General and discriminant analysis distinguished patients, controls, gender, and the association between laughter and HDRS test. RESULTS: Depressed patients and healthy controls differed significantly on the type of laughter, with 88% efficacy. According to the Hamilton scale, 85.47% of the samples were correctly classified in males, and 66.17% in women, suggesting a tight relationship between laughter and the depressed condition. LIMITATIONS: (i) The compilation of humorous videos created to evoke laughter implied quite variable chances of laughter production. (ii) Some laughing subjects might not feel comfortable when recording. (iii) Evaluation of laughter episodes depended on personal inspection of the records. (iv) Sample size was relatively small and may not be representative of the general population afflicted by depression. CONCLUSIONS: Laughter may be applied as a diagnostic tool in the onset and evolution of depression and, potentially, of neuropsychiatric pathologies. The sound structures of laughter reveal the underlying emotional and mood states in interpersonal relationships.

[Studies on liver abscesses (author's transl)]. / Réflexions sur les abcès du foie.

The authors report 25 observations of liver abscesses in the same service over a 5 years period. Diagnostic difficulties are pointed out and the value of echography, a simple and well tolerated examination, are emphasized immunologic studies allow the differentiation of the two types off liver abscesses i.e., pyogenic and amoebic, thus orientating their different treatments. The treatment of pyogenic abscesses (12 cases) is chiefly surgical, supported with suitable antibiotic therapy. Amoebic abscesses require medical treatment in collected abscesses of little or mean volume. In our series the number of patients requiring surgery is important (13 cases). This is due to persisting residual pouches or to the absence of well defined cliical improvement with medical treatment and the occurence of pre-burst or burst symptoms.