[A 15 years' follow-up of use of lithium at the Department of Psychiatry of Marseille University. Data concerning the follow-up of 205 patients]. / Catamnèse de 15 ans d'utilisation du lithium à la clinique universitaire de psychiatrie de Marseille. Données concernant le suivi de 205 patients.

The authors report descriptive data from a follow-up study of 205 patients taking lithium therapy and treated at the Department of Psychiatry (Marseille, France), during a 15 years period (1972-1987). Methods of investigation consisted in a detailed examination of their hospital and clinic case notes and in medical interviews of psychiatrists in charge of patients. 25 features have been selected in order to precise clinical and biological characteristics of patients: Diagnosis (INSERM, ICD9), family history of psychiatric disorders, illness course, salt used, serum and erythrocytes lithium levels, dose maintenance, additional medications, psychological and physical side effects, compliance with medication and clinical response.

A multivariate analysis of red blood cell membrane transports and plasma levels of L-tyrosine and L-tryptophan in depressed patients before treatment and after clinical improvement.

The purpose of this study was to examine whether biological variables, such as erythrocyte membrane transports and plasma levels of monoamine precursor amino acids (tyrosine, tryptophan and phenylalanine), exhibit a particular pattern relatively to DSM-III depressive subgroups (dysthymic disorders, major recurrent depression and biopolar depression), when they are treated synthetically by a stepwise discriminant analysis. We conducted two tests in 97 subjects (64 depressed patients vs. 33 controls): the first before any antidepressant treatment, and the second after pharmacotherapy and clinical improvement. Our results clearly indicate a satisfying homogeneity for the controls and bipolar depressed patients as opposed to dysthymic disorders and major recurrent depression in both tests. The most informative biological variables are the erythrocyte membrane transports before treatment, tryptophan parameters after clinical improvement. Evidence is provided that multivariate analysis constitutes an interesting approach in biological psychiatry.

Life events in the biography of French male and female alcoholics.

The fundamental research techniques used for stressful life events (i.e. questionnaires about main life events and rating of their consequences) were applied to study the biographies of 119 male and female alcoholics. Findings were compared with those of 60 non-alcoholics. The alcoholic sample was heterogenous with regard to age, sex and social and cultural level as well as with regard to the troubles induced by alcohol intake. However, despite the disparity, great homogeneity was seen in the representation of the biography of alcoholics. Most alcoholics attach great importance to events occurring during the first year of alcohol dependence (which seems to be rich in events, particularly negative ones) and alcoholism is the determinant factor in their weighting of events.

[Role of carbamazepine in the treatment of endogenous psychoses. Results of an open study]. / Place de la carbamazépine dans le traitement des psychoses endogènes. Résultats d'une étude ouverte.

The authors report the results of an open trial which aims at specifying the clinical profile of responders to carbamazepine among a population of twenty patients aged from fifteen to seventy, suffering from endogenous, schizophrenic, affective psychoses and paranoid states according to the criteria of the ICD 9. The trial points out a proof of Kishimoto's criteria and a preferential acting of the molecule on schizo-affective psychoses and mixed affective states. The results are interpreted according to psychopathological concepts from the Vienna school that highlight the clinical profile of the responders.

[Events in the lives of 120 chronic alcoholics. Preliminary study]. / Etude des événements dans la vie de 120 éthyliques chroniques. Etude préliminaire.

We have applied, with necessary modifications, life-events methodology, to the study of nature and temporal distribution of life-events occurring in 120 chronic alcoholics. Total number and distribution of life events undergo some variations with age, sex, ethnic group and socio-professional level in chronic alcoholics. We have specially analysed the temporal curve of life events before, during and after the year of beginning alcohol abuse. Frequency of life events dramatically rises during this year and remains abnormally high in the five following years. These data have some meaning for pathogenesis and behavioral consequences of chronic alcoholism.

[Phenomenology of depression (author's transl)]. / Phénoménologie de la dépression.

The term "phenomenology" is often misused as a synonym for clinical description. In fact phenomenology has no interest for symptoms but for phenomena. Viewed phenomenologically, depression is not sadness because sadness is a feeling about somebody or something and depression is a mood, i.e. a global mode of being. Sadness, as a feeling, has a temporal course, whereas depression, as long as it is present, seems to have neither beginning nor end, and is helplessness in its core. Most of all, sadness pertains to the psyche: depression as a state of "living body" is bodily as well as psychic and, to put it shortly, "vital depression" is pleonastic. The paper ends by a phenomenological view of classification of depressive states which is rather classification of types of depressivities, i.e. of global modes of being.

[Animals and their masters. Psychological and psychopathological aspects]. / Les animaux et leurs maitres. Aspects psychologiques et psychopathologiques.

Animals have always occupied a privileged place beside man and with him form a couple, a duality. In the first part the authors study the psychology of the adopted animal. Then they look at greater length into the personality of his owner, with particular insistence on the reasons for acquiring it, on the choice of animal (dog, cat, horses), on the part it plays in the life of its master, and on the latter's reaction at his companion's death. They also tackle the problem of man's abnormal behaviour in relation to animals, especially bestiality.

[Transsexualism]. / A propos du transsexualisme.

According to the literature, the transsexual phenomenon can be assessed as a distinct psychiatric illness. Transsexualism, a rare but spectacular disorder, realizes a gender identity reversal raising questions regarding systems of psychiatric diagnosis, nosology and treatment. A better clinical knowledge of this "experiment" and its follow-up allow studying processes contributory to marked deviation of gender identity and furthering concepts of development of masculinity and feminity. Current research deals with hypotheses that can be stated as testable propositions about underlying dynamics in various fields: learning factors, psychoanalytic components and psycho-biological data. Focusing on the early infantile development and the environmental influences reflects a variety of non specific psychogenetic precursors. The treatment of "gender dysphoria syndrom", i.e. hormonal treatment, sex-reassignment surgery and psychotherapic processes, aims towards réduction of psychic pain and social adjustment in the cross-gender role. Transsexual phenomenon largely overlaps the psychopathological area; beyond surgical and medical aspects, social implications and legal positions refer to an ethical problem.

[Psychological factors in the etiology of cancers: methodological problems (author's transl)]. / Les facteurs psychologiques dans l'étiologie des cancers. Problèmes méthodologiques.

There is a multiplicity of etiological factors in human cancer; psychic factors are probably neither the most important nor the most constant. Nonetheless, owing to the potential infinity of psychological variables, it is necessary to formulate hypotheses in an operational manner. The casuistic method allows a thorough clinical study of objective events, of the manner in which the patient lives them and, especially, of what they mean to him. Such an approach, however, has shortcomings which must be accepted: it cannot administer proof of the hypotheses it advances. The superiority of prospective methods over retrospective methods seems indisputable for there is no evidence that personality traits are not modified by the fatal threat of a serious illness. This criticism also holds for the modified retrospective methods, the so-called predictive methods. Research focussed on particular cancers with a study of limited psychological variables seems desirable.

[Vagrancy: psychological and psychopathological aspects]. / Le vagabondage: aspects psychologiques et psychopathologiques.

The authors, after defining the words "vagrancy" and "vagrant", explore their semantical field and try to specify differences in respect of neighbouring words, often confused with them. An historical sketch of vagrancy, from antiquity to the present era, is depicted. There after, the authors state the evolution of theories of vagrancy, from the biological, psychological, psychiatrical and sociological points of view. The last part of the paper considers psychopathology of vagrancy, specially in psychoanalytical and phenomenological approaches, and problems of rehabilitation.