[Use of low doses of bromocriptine in chronic schizophrenia resistant to neuroleptics. A preliminary study]. / Utilisation de faibles posologies de bromocriptine dans la schizophrénie chronique résistante aux neuroleptiques. Une étude préliminaire.

In this work, we report the efficiency of bromocriptine (1.25 and 2.5 mg/day) in 9 neuroleptic resistant chronic schizophrenics. Following an initial four-week placebo period, the subjects successively received bromocriptine (1.25 mg/day), placebo and bromocriptine (2.5 mg/day). The 2 bromocriptine treatments significantly improved the global psychiatric symptomatology and different scores and factors related to the more specific schizophrenic symptomatology. An escape phenomenon seems to occur during the 4th week of the first bromocriptine treatment (1.25 mg/day) but is not observed with the second treatment (2.5 mg/day). All patients improved.

[Complete neuroleptic withdrawal in patients with schizophrenia with intense symptoms and resistant to treatment]. / Sevrage neuroleptique complet chez des patients schizophrènes présentant une symptomatologie intense et résistant au traitement.

We report 2 studies evaluating the effects of a complete and progressive neuroleptic withdrawal on the symptomatology of 2 groups of 10 young chronically ill schizophrenic inpatients. In a preliminary open study, we compare the psychiatric symptomatology during a 4-week-period before the beginning of withdrawal and during a similar period following the end of withdrawal. We observe the significative improvement of the blunted affect, the deterioration of an aspecific psychiatric symptomatology (including irritability, excitement, hostility) and the non-modification of the specific schizophrenic symptomatology (in its 3 main components: positive signs, negative signs, disorganization). The second study (a double blind one) reports the effects of a complete neuroleptic withdrawal maintained during a longer period (8 weeks): 1. The improvement of the blunted affect is transiently observed during the 2 first weeks after the end of withdrawal but not after this time. 2. The deterioration of the aspecific psychiatric symptomatology by opposition to the non-significative modification of the specific schizophrenic symptomatology is a fact confirmed by this second study. Even if we can not exclude that the influence of neuroleptic withdrawal on the specific psychotic symptoms may require a longer time frame than 8 weeks to detect, this dichotomic evolution raises the problem of the specific action of neuroleptics in this particular category of patients.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

[The law of informed consent and its impasses in psychiatry]. / La règle du consentement éclairé et ses impasses en psychiatrie.

Every medical intervention is submitted to the rule of informed consent. Over the years, criteria of consent validity and exception situations have been defined. After a discussion of the difficult application of the informed consent rule in psychiatry, this article suggests an analysis of the motivations of a refusal of neuroleptic medication in 20 psychotic patients of a psychiatric hospital. The irrational motivations of refusal (particularly, denial and delusional ideation) have been evoked much more often then rational motivations (therapeutic inefficiency, secondary effects). The authors question the denial as a sufficient reason to declare a psychotic patient incompetent to consent. The consequences of the refusal of the neuroleptic treatment in some patients, mainly the risk of criminalization, are discussed.