[Placebo and placebo effect]. / Placebo et effet placebo.

The word placebo appeared for the first time in an English medical dictionary in 1785. In French, it appeared much latter in 1958. This word defines an experimental tool used for rigourous evaluation of a specific effect of pharmacological treatment and the non specific effect of any therapy. The placebo effect is the strictly psychological or psychophysiological effect of a placebo. The two principal components of placebo effect as a pain killer, which has been extensively studied in this field, are positive expectancies of both the patient and the physician. Although the mechanisms of action of placebo effect are not well understood, results of several recent works are particularly interesting.

[Efficacy of a non blind placebo prescription]. / Effets de la prescription d'un placebo "annoncé".

The aim of our open clinical trial was to determine the efficacy and the tolerance of a blue coloured placebo in moderated anxious patients (Hamilton score below 15) and a red one for tired patients without DSM IV criteria of major depressive disorder. All the patients knew that treatment was a placebo and so, had no pharmacological effect. The trial run over seven days. All patients were considered as responders if their initial symptoms were reduced more than 50%. At the end of the week, the final clinical evaluation showed that 18 patients about 34 were in good condition (10 anxious patients, 7 women and 3 men, and 8 tired patients, 4 women and 4 men). The anxious score of Hamilton scale was reduced of 63%; 16 of the 18 responders were absolutely sure that the treatment was usefull. Four patients were obliged to stop their treatment because side effects: insomnia, tiredness and sleepiness, gastric pain and itching of fore arm.

[Madness in the German cinema (1913-1933]. / La folie dans le cinéma allemand (1913-1933).

During these twenty years, from 1913 to 1933, of the history of the German cinema, the cinematographic representation of madness varies according to the fluctuations of the social and economical background. The political and ideological chaos of the immediate post-war years was symbolized in the allegorical imagery of unreason in the expressionist cinema. The same equivalence, the same symbolization can be found in the cinema of the thirties when the crash of Wall-Street foretells a crisis like the former. On the contrary in the course of the so-called "relative stabilization" (1924-1929) the meaning of the representation of madness is totally different from the representation of the previous period. At this period of economical restoration, madness which could henceforth be cured on the psychoanalyst's couch (acc. G. W. Pabst's film: "Geheimnisse einer Seele") became the symbol of the absolute power rediscovered by Germany.

[Psychosis and creativity. Reflections on an autistic painter: Sylvain Fusco]. / Psychose et créativité. Réflexions à propos d'un peintre autiste: Sylvain Fusco.

Through the life and the creative activities of an autistic schizoid, the authors describe the relationship and the fundamental differences existing between the genuine artist and the psychotic subject, and consequently, the distinction between the concepts of art and creativeness.

[A hospital problem: agitation in the elderly (author's transl)]. / Un problème hospitalier: l'agitation du vieillard.

Tiapride was prescribed for 10 elderly patients with severe behavioural disorders : agitation, disturbed conduct, and agressiveness at the limits of dementia. The dosage was 300 mg orally per day in three divided doses, and treatment was maintained for 30 days. Excellent results were obtained in 8 cases, and 17 of these patients were able to resume normal activities outside the hospital. There was no effect in the other 2 patients. The product was very well-tolerated and in particular there were no sedative manifestations affecting sleep or altertness.