How to stay in touch with adolescents and young adults after a suicide attempt? Implementation of a 4-phones-calls procedure over 1 year after discharge from hospital, in a Parisian suburb.

OBJECTIVES: Post-discharge treatment is a major part of youth suicide prevention. However, many adolescents and young adults suicidal patients released from emergency department (ED) fail to follow through with subsequent outpatient psychiatric appointments. The aims were to (1) implement a one-year follow-up phone-call program for adolescent and young adults suicide attempters admitted at the ED (2) assess its feasibility (3) describe outcomes measures (repeated suicide attempt and observance of outpatient care) and (4) access risk factors to be out of sight at one year follow up and (5) elicit subjective feedback after one year, using narrative data. METHOD: A cohort of adolescents and young adults aged 15-21 years admitted to Avicenne University Hospital ED for suicide attempt (SA) was created and re-contacted using phone calls at one week, one month, six months and twelve months after discharge. Sociodemographic information was collected at baseline. At one year, qualitative data was collected from patients or their parents. RESULTS: One hundred and seventy-three adolescents and young adults were included. At 1 year, 93 young patients had been successfully contacted, among whom 23 had reattempted suicide, at least once. Adolescents and young adults that were unreachable at one year showed a higher rate of school dropout and had more migration history at baseline. Feedback showed that the intervention was experienced as supportive. CONCLUSION: Phone-calls after discharge from hospital might help enhance compliance to aftercare treatment, and were well-accepted by both adolescents and parents. Nevertheless, half of our sample was lost of sight at one year. Further studies are needed to find the most effective prevention strategy with young suicide attempters, especially for migrants and school droppers.

[Psychotic states in young migrants and children of migrants]. / Les états psychotiques chez les jeunes migrants et enfants de migrants.

Psychiatric literature documenting increased rates of psychotic illness among migrants in European countries has been more and more reported during the past two decades. Social causes to this phenomenon have been highlighted. In this paper, we review and discuss this literature from the cultural psychiatry perspective. We can point three limitations to these works : the definition of the studied groups, the cultural validity diagnoses, and the psychic impact of migration and its complexity not being considered enough. The above considerations lead us to go forward with studies addressing this question. The need to construct methodologies addressing psychiatric epidemiology, transcultural psychiatry and human sciences is underlined.

Addressing the mother-infant relationship in displaced communities.

Delivering appropriate care to refugee families requires complex care systems and models that take account of the social, cultural, and political dimensions as well as the psychologic dimension. Children born into these families are exposed to consequences of their own past experiences and also may be subject to the transmission of the traumas experienced by their parents. This exposure can lead to alterations in these children's individual creative resources. Early, tailored care should be provided for these families, so that the transmission of the trauma and its consequences can be managed or ameliorated.

[Externalizing behaviour problems of internationally adopted adolescents: a review]. / Troubles du comportement externalisés à l'adolescence et adoptions internationales: revue de la littérature.

INTRODUCTION: International adoption involves more than 40 000 children a year. The objective of this review is to estimate the effects of international adoption on externalizing behaviour problems during adolescence. In this paper we examine the prevalence of externalizing problem behaviours in samples of adolescents who were adopted from a foreign country as infants or young children, compare to non-adopted adolescents. SETTING: We searched Medline, Inist and psycInfo from 1960 to 2005 using the terms adopt* combined with behaviour problem, behaviour disorder, maladjustment or mental health. METHODS: The search was limited to English and French-language publications. Studies that were selected involved adoptees in the general population and compared international adoptees with non-adopted controls. Adoptees from 12 to 22 years old were included. We included studies using the Child Behaviour Check List or related measures to measure externalizing problem behaviour. We reviewed 10 studies from 1990 to 2002 and 2 meta-analyses (2003, 2005). RESULTS: Results indicate that 6 studies conclude that internationally adopted adolescents exhibit more externalizing behaviour problems than do non-adopted adolescents, and 4 studies conclude that there is no difference between the two groups. The two meta-analyses concluded that the prevalence of externalizing behaviour problems is increased. The difference, however, is small. International adoptees with preadoption adversity showed more externalizing problems than international adoptees whithout evidence of extreme deprivation. CONCLUSION: Finally, it should be stressed that adoption itself is not a risk factor in the adjustment of adolescents. Differences between groups of adopted and non-adopted adolescents may reflect the presence of a small number of severely disturbed adolescents, possibly with extremely adverse pre-placement histories.

[Finding a meaning for illness: from medical anthropology to cultural epidemiology]. / Donner un sens à la maladie: de l'anthropologie médicale à l'épidémiologie culturelle.

Every illness raises questions concerning its causes and even more its meaning. Why me? Why him? Why now? These questions call for an interpretation which goes beyond a simple application to the individual body and the medical diagnosis. This search for meaning is by no means an archaic attitude and does not only concern the cryptic fields of medicine as several studies in medical anthropology and transcultural psychiatry have shown. A review of literature in anthropology points out the basic concepts of "health care system", "explanatory models", "etiological theories", and "causality of illness". The contribution of these studies to epidemiology and public health of infectious and tropical diseases is discussed through the development of so called cultural epidemiology based on the methodology of the Explanatory Model Interview Catalogue.

Suicide attempts in women with bulimia nervosa: frequency and characteristics.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to estimate the lifetime frequency of suicide attempts in a large referred population of women with DSM-IV bulimia nervosa (BN), and to compare demographic and clinical characteristics of those who had attempted suicide and those who had not. METHOD: A total of 295 women (202 with BN purging type, 68 with BN non-purging type and 25 with anorexia nervosa binge/eating purging type) were assessed using a semi-structured interview and self-rated questionnaires. RESULTS: Suicide attempts were frequent (27.8% of women), often serious and/or multiple. Women who had attempted suicide differed significantly from those who had not for earlier onset of psychopathology, higher severity of depressive and general symptoms, and more impulsive disordered conducts, but not for the core symptoms or severity of BN. CONCLUSION: Interventions targeting depressive and impulsive features associated with BN are essential to reduce the risk of suicide attempt in women with this disorder.

Clinical relevance of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) in adolescents with severe mood disorder: evidence from a follow-up study.

Given the limited knowledge on the long-term outcome of adolescents who receive electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), the study aimed to follow-up adolescents treated with ECT for severe mood disorder. Eleven subjects treated during adolescence with bilateral ECT for psychotic depression (n = 6) or mania (n = 5), and ten psychiatric controls matched for sex, age, school level, and clinical diagnosis, completed at least 1 year after treatment a clinical and social evaluation. Mean duration between time of index episode and time of follow-up evaluation was 5.2 years (range 2-9 years). At follow-up: (1) all patients except two in the control group received a diagnosis of bipolar disorder. (2) Fifteen patients had had more than one episode of mood disorder. (3) The two groups did not differ in social functioning nor school achievement. (4) Impact on school achievement was related to the severity of the mood disorder rather than ECT treatment. The results suggest that adolescents given ECT for bipolar disorder, depressed or manic, do not differ in subsequent school and social functioning from carefully matched controls.

Electroconvulsive therapy in adolescents with mood disorder: patients' and parents' attitudes.

The aim of the study was to assess retrospectively patients' and parents' experiences and attitudes towards the use of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) in adolescence. The experiences of subjects (n=10) who were administered ECT in adolescence for a severe mood disorder and their parents (n=18) were assessed using a semi-structured interview after a mean of 4.5 years (range, 19 months to 9 years). Their attitudes were mostly positive and ECT was considered a helpful treatment. Concerns were frequently expressed, probably because ECT was not fully understood by the patients and their families. Most complaints were of transitory memory impairment. The parents were satisfied with the consent procedure, while all but one patient did not remember the consent procedure. We concluded that, despite negative views about ECT in public opinion, adolescent recipients and their parents shared overall positive attitudes towards the use of ECT in this age range.

Borna disease virus and psychiatry.

Borna disease virus (BDV), a noncytolytic neurotropic nonsegmented negative-stranded RNA virus with a wide geographic distribution, infects several vertebrate animal species and causes an immune-mediated central nervous system (CNS) disease with various manifestations, depending on both host and viral factors. In animal infections, BDV can persist in the CNS and induce alterations in brain cell functions, neurodevelopmental abnormalities and behavioral disturbances. An association between BDV and psychiatric disorders (essentially schizophrenia and affective disorders) has been suggested by some serologic and molecular studies but further investigations are required to substantiate the possible contribution of this virus to the pathogenesis of these disorders.

Psychoactive substance consumption in eating disorders.

Research investigating the comorbidity between eating disorders and substance-use disorders have reported positive but contrasting results. The aim of this study was to further explore this association by studying patterns of consumption of the entire range of psychoactive substances (alcohol, specific drugs, prescribed psychotropics) in a large sample (N=271) of eating-disorder DSM-IV subtypes. Results show that subjects suffering from anorexia of the restrictive type show significantly less drug-consumption behaviors and alcohol abuse and/or dependence disorders than purging anorexic and bulimic subjects. No difference was found in the total consumption of psychotropics among the four groups of eating disorders. However, more than half of eating-disorder subjects are regular consumers of psychotropics. Among these regular consumers, bulimics self-prescribe and increase their doses of psychotropics significantly more than anorexics. Features of impulsivity that are associated with purging and bulimic behaviors could play a specific role in these patterns of comorbidity and account for such differences.

Electroconvulsive therapy in adolescence.

The aim of this work is to discuss the ethical issues regarding the use of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) in adolescents. Ethical implications of ECT in adolescents are analyzed in the light of general medical ethics, which include five prominent principles with respect to autonomy, nonmaleficence, beneficence, justice, and cautiousness. As adults, adolescents with acute psychotic impairment raise an inherent conflict between the respect for the patient's autonomy, on the one side, and the principle of beneficence on the other. However, this age group presents particular dilemmas: (i) As any adolescent suffering from a psychiatric illness is a highly vulnerable subject, society asks for particular attention. The consequence of potential overprotection is that the adolescent may remain untreated because of unrealistic fears regarding ECT. (ii) Some of these fears are linked to the cognitive secondary effects of ECT. Although preliminary data are reassuring, more empirical research on this population should be encouraged. (iii) Cautiousness recommends the use of ECT in limited indications catatonia, mood disorders, and intractable acute psychotic disorders. We conclude that there is no ethical reason to ban the use of ECT in adolescents. Ethical options in clinical practice must be evaluated empirically with respect to the consequences for the patient. Dogmatic views should be set aside.

Absence of cognitive impairment at long-term follow-up in adolescents treated with ECT for severe mood disorder.

OBJECTIVE: Cognitive functions of adolescents treated with ECT for mood disorder were evaluated at long-term follow-up. METHOD: At an average of 3.5 years (SD=1.7) after the last ECT, 10 subjects treated during adolescence with bilateral ECT for severe mood disorder completed a clinical and cognitive evaluation, including the California Verbal Learning Test and Squire's Subjective Memory Questionnaire. The same assessments were given to 10 psychiatric comparison subjects matched for sex, age, and diagnosis. RESULTS: All cognitive test scores of the patients treated with ECT were similar to those of the comparison subjects and did not differ from norms from the community. Six of the 10 ECT-treated patients reported having had memory losses immediately after the ECT course, but only one complained of subjective memory impairment at follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that adolescents given ECT for severe mood disorder do not suffer measurable cognitive impairment at long-term follow-up.