[Hearing impairment in children: early diagnosis is essential]. / Surdités de l'enfant: un diagnostic précoce est impératif.

Diagnosis of hearing impairment is possible during the first days of life. Hearing tests are noninvasive and should not be delayed when hearing loss is suspected. Among children's hearing impairments, conductive hearing loss is the most frequent; it is generally acquired and reversible. At the opposite pole, sensorineural hearing loss has more severe consequences because it is irreversible and often present from birth. Early diagnosis and treatment are necessary in all cases to prevent speech delay. In cases with sensorineural hearing impairment, hearing aid fitting, or even cochlear implantation, and intensive speech therapy will help deaf children learn speech, with the view of optimal social and professional integration.

[Language comprehension by children with profound congenital deafness after cochlear implant]. / Compréhension du langage par les enfants sourds profonds congénitaux au moyen de l'implant cochléaire.

The consequences of profound deafness on oral language development in children are drastic and well-known. Modern multichannel cochlear implant (CI) has been proven to enhance speech production skills in prelingually deaf children. Speech production skills, however, are known not to be a reliable reflection of oral language competence as a whole. Language is an acquired common code in a specific group, enabling exchange of ideas, feelings and knowledge. In humans, speech is one of the channels conveying language. Assessing language development in CI children is more difficult than simply assessing speech production skills. Many factors may contribute to a poor or an excellent outcome, making it difficult to compare groups of children wearing or not wearing CI. The present study compared receptive language levels in paired matched children from CI and non-CI groups. The main conclusion of this study is that language comprehension scores grow significantly higher over time post-surgery in CI than in paired-matched non-CI children, despite better initial pure tone audiometric thresholds of the latter.

Comprehension of language in congenitally deaf children with and without cochlear implants.

The consequences of profound early deafness on oral language in children are drastic. The modern cochlear implant (CI) has been shown to enhance speech production skills in prelingually deaf children. Many factors may contribute to a poor or an excellent outcome, making it difficult to compare groups of children wearing or not wearing cochlear implants. The present study compared receptive language levels in matched pairs of children from CI group and non-CI groups. The pre-op receptive language development curve suggest a possible growth over time with the maturation and the speech therapy. Comparison showed that the slope for post-op CI children to be greater than for non-CI children, and that this difference is statistically significant, and that the slope for CI children to be greater post- than pre-operatively. The main conclusion is that receptive language scores grow significantly higher over time after surgery in CI than in pair-matched non-CI children, despite better initial pure tone audiometric thresholds of the latter.

[Spirit and madness. The Maison Blanche at Montmartre]. / Esprit et folie. La Maison Blanche à Montmartre.

Dr Prost's psychiatric clinic was managed by the doctors Blanche senior and junior (Esprit and Emile), then by doctors Meuriot senior and junior during more than one century from Napoleon's First Empire until the end of the first world war (1914-1918). This clinic acquired a sound reputation and celebrity thanks to the use of new psychiatric methods and a practice open to all artists and literary elite at that time, with whom the successive owners kept friendly relationships.

[Early management of language disorders]. / Interventions précoces dans les troubles du langage.

The audio-language consultations of the Centre d'Audiophonologie of Lyon, France, allow the diagnosis of language delay to be documented in very young children. Based on a five-year clinical study, the authors propose a method of regular follow-up for the child and the parents.

[Perphenazine enanthate. Results of a 1-year open multicenter study]. / Enanthate de perphénazine. Résultats d'une étude ouverte multicentrique d'un an.

The results of a one-year, open multicenter trial of perphenazine enanthate, a sustained-release neuroleptic drug, are reported. 240 patients (62% suffering from schizophrenia) were included in the study and 144 were followed during the 12-month period. The usual adverse reactions associated with sustained-release neuroleptic drugs were observed. Total and partial BPRS ratings showed that improvement (expressed as a percentage) after 12 months' treatment was similar for systematized chronic delusions, paranoid schizophrenia and hebephrenia. However, the onset of therapeutic activity was different in these three groups of patients. Maximum therapeutic activity, as defined by the BPRS rating, was obtained within 4 months in chronic delusions whereas schizophrenia improved more progressively. Such patients therefore require prolonged treatment before the therapeutic activity of a sustained-release neuroleptic drug can be assessed.