Prevalence and impact of patient suicide in psychiatrists: Results from a national French web-based survey.

BACKGROUND: Patient suicide (PS) is known to be a frequent and challenging occupational hazard for mental health professionals. No study previously explored the prevalence and impact of PS in a large sample of French psychiatrists. METHOD: A national web-based survey was performed between September and December 2019 to assess (a) the prevalence of the exposure to PS, (b) the emotional, traumatic and professional impacts of PS, and (c) the perceived support in the aftermath of PS in French psychiatrists. Participants were contacted through email to answer the online 62-item questionnaire, including a measure of traumatic impact through the Impact of Event Scale-Revised. Emotional and professional impacts and perceived support were assessed through dedicated items. RESULTS: A total of 764 psychiatrists fully completed the survey. Of them, 87.3% reported an exposure to PS and 13.7% reported PTSD symptoms afterward. Guilt, sadness and shock were the most frequent emotions. Among the exposed psychiatrists, 15.1% have temporarily considered changing their career path. The most emotionally distressing PS occurred during their ten first years of practice or during residency. A total of 37.1% of respondents felt unsupported and 50.4% reported that no team meeting had been organized in the aftermath. The feeling of responsibility for the death was strongly associated with negative impacts. CONCLUSION: Our results entail considerations to prevent negative mental health outcomes in psychiatrists after PS. Notably, our results advocate for the implementation of educational programs during psychiatric residency and postvention programs in healthcare settings to effectively help psychiatrists in dealing with PS.

[Clinical and biological predictors of ketamine response in treatment-resistant major depression: Review]. / Facteurs prédictifs de la réponse antidépressive à la kétamine dans les épisodes dépressifs majeurs résistants : revue de la littérature.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this review was to determine the clinical and biological predictors of the ketamine response. METHODS: A systematic research on PubMed and PsycINFO database was performed without limits on year of publication. RESULTS: The main predictive factors of ketamine response, which were found in different studies, were (i) a family history of alcohol dependence, (ii) unipolar depressive disorder, and (iii) neurocognitive impairments, especially a slower processing speed. Many other predictive factors were identified, but not replicated, such as personal history of alcohol dependence, no antecedent of suicide attempt, anxiety symptoms. Some biological factors were also found such as markers of neural plasticity (slow wave activity, brain-derived neurotrophic factor Val66Met polymorphism, expression of Shank 3 protein), other neurologic factors (anterior cingulate activity, concentration of glutamine/glutamate), inflammatory factors (IL-6 concentration) or metabolic factors (concentration of B12 vitamin, D- and L-serine, alterations in the mitochondrial ß-oxidation of fatty acids). This review had several limits: (i) patients had exclusively resistant major depressive episodes which represent a sub-type of depression and not all depression, (ii) response criteria were more frequently assessed than remission criteria, it was therefore difficult to conclude that these predictors were similar, and finally (iii) many studies used a very small number of patients. CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, this review found that some predictors of ketamine response, like basal activity of anterior cingulate or vitamin B12 concentration, were identical to other therapeutics used in major depressive episode. These factors could be more specific to the major depressive episode and not to the ketamine response. Others, like family history of alcohol dependence, body mass index, or D- and L-serine were different from the other therapeutics. Neurocognitive impairments like slower speed processing or alterations in attention tests were also predictive to a good response. These predictive factors could be more specific to ketamine. With these different predictor factors (clinical and biological), it could be interesting to develop clinical strategies to personalize ketamine's administration.

Differential role of visuospatial working memory in the propensity toward uncertainty in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder and in healthy subjects.

BACKGROUND: Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is associated with visuospatial working memory deficits. Intolerance of uncertainty is thought to be a core component of OCD symptoms. Recent findings argue for a possible relationship between abilities in visuospatial memory and uncertainty. However, this relationship remains unclear in both OCD patients and healthy subjects. To address this issue, we measured performance in visuospatial working memory and the propensity to express uncertainty during decision making. We assessed their relationship and the temporal direction of this relationship in both OCD patients and healthy subjects. METHOD: Baseline abilities in visuospatial working memory were measured with the Corsi block-tapping test. A delayed matching-to-sample task was used to identify explicit situations of certainty, uncertainty and ignorance and to assess continuous performance in visuospatial working memory. Behavioural variables were recorded over 360 consecutive trials in both groups. RESULTS: Baseline scores of visuospatial working memory did not predict the number of uncertain situations in OCD patients whereas they did in healthy subjects. Uncertain trials led to reduced abilities in visuospatial working memory to 65% of usual performance in OCD patients whereas they remained stable in healthy subjects. CONCLUSIONS: The present findings show an opposite temporal direction in the relationship between abilities in working memory and uncertainty in OCD patients and healthy subjects. Poor working memory performance contributes to the propensity to feel uncertainty in healthy subjects whereas uncertainty contributes to decreased continuous performance in working memory in OCD patients.

Evolution of brain gray matter loss in Huntington's disease: a meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Huntington's disease is characterized by neuronal loss throughout the disease course. Voxel-based morphometry studies have reported reductions in gray matter concentration (GMC) in many brain regions in patients with Huntington. The description of the time course of gray matter loss may help to identify some evolution markers. Here, we conducted a meta-analysis of voxel-based morphometry studies of Huntington's disease to describe the evolution of brain gray matter loss. METHODS: A systematic search led to the inclusion of 11 articles on Huntington's disease (297 patients and 205 controls). We extracted data from patients with preclinical Huntington, patients with clinical Huntington, and controls. Finally, anatomical likelihood estimation analyses were conducted to identify GMC changes between preclinical patients and controls, between clinical patients and controls, and between preclinical and clinical patients. RESULTS: Preclinical patients exhibited gray matter loss in the left basal ganglia and the prefrontal cortex. Clinical patients had bilateral gray matter loss in the basal ganglia, the prefrontal cortex, and the insula. The left striatum was smaller in clinical patients than in preclinical patients. CONCLUSIONS: Neurodegenerative processes associated with Huntington's disease, as assessed by GMC reduction, begin in the left hemisphere and extend to the contralateral hemisphere throughout the inexorable course of the disease. Changes in gray matter, especially the volumetric side ratio of the striatum, could represent a relevant biomarker for characterizing the different progression stages of the disease.

A critical review of the contribution of eye movement recordings to the neuropsychology of obsessive compulsive disorder.

OBJECTIVE: Dysfunctions of saccadic and/or smooth pursuit eye movements have been proposed as markers of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), but experimental results are inconsistent. The aim of this paper was to review the literature on eye movement dysfunctions in OCD to assess whether or not saccades or smooth pursuit may be used to diagnose and characterize OCD. METHOD: Literature was searched using PubMed, ISI Web of Knowledge, and PsycINFO databases for all studies reporting eye movements in adult patients suffering from OCD. RESULTS: Thirty-three articles were found. As expected, eye movements of the patients with OCD were mostly assessed with simple oculomotor paradigms involving saccadic and/or smooth pursuit control. In contrast to patients with schizophrenia, however, patients with OCD only displayed rather unspecific deficits, namely slight smooth pursuit impairments and longer response latencies on antisaccade tasks. There was no relationship between these deficits and the severity of patients' symptoms. Interestingly, eye movements of the patients with OCD were almost never recorded during more complex cognitive tasks. CONCLUSION: As in schizophrenia and autism, eye movement recordings during more complex tasks might help to better characterize the cognitive deficits associated with OCD. Such recordings may reveal specific OCD-related deficits that could be used as reliable diagnostic and/or classification tools.

[Functional somatic syndromes: A comprehensive cognitive model]. / Troubles somatiques fonctionnels : un modèle cognitif pour mieux les comprendre.

Functional somatic syndromes are frequent in general and specialized medicine practices. Several treatments can be useful. However, the treatment program is often hampered by patients' reluctance to acknowledge the diagnosis because of erroneous lay representations. Recent advances in cognitive science offer a new understanding of the pathophysiology of functional somatic disorders, making this diagnosis more acceptable for patients and caregivers. Simply explained with practical examples, the Bayesian model in particular provides some insights into the underlying cognitive mechanisms of functional somatic syndromes and their treatments. Advantages of this approach are twofold: it is consistent with current scientific knowledge and it can facilitate the physician-patient relationship.

A challenging task for assessment of checking behaviors in obsessive-compulsive disorder.

OBJECTIVE: The present study concerns the objective and quantitative measurement of checking activity, which represents the most frequently observed compulsions in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). To address this issue, we developed an instrumental task producing repetitive checking in OCD subjects. METHOD: Fifty OCD subjects and 50 normal volunteers (NV) were administered a delayed matching-to-sample task that offered the unrestricted opportunity to verify the choice made. Response accuracy, number of verifications, and response time for choice taken to reflect the degree of uncertainty and doubt were recorded over 50 consecutive trials. RESULTS: Despite similar levels of performance, patients with OCD demonstrated a greater number of verifications and a longer response time for choice before checking than NV. Such behavioral patterns were more pronounced in OCD subjects currently experiencing checking compulsions. CONCLUSION: The present task might be of special relevance for the quantitative assessment of checking behaviors and for determining relationships with cognitive processes.

[Atypical antipsychotics in first-episode psychosis: a review]. / Les antipsychotiques atypiques dans le premier épisode psychotique: revue de la littérature.

BACKGROUND: The management of patients with first-episode psychosis (FEP) is a difficult, but challenging task. Early and efficient treatment may influence long-term clinical outcome. Atypical antipsychotics (A-AP) are commonly prescribed in this population, but few data exist to establish their appropriate usage in the management of FEP. Our purpose is to review the literature and to summarize current data on the prescription of A-AP in FEP. METHODS: Studies assessing efficacy or safety of A-AP in FEP were identified by searches in Medline (up to April 2006). The following nine drugs were considered for this review: clozapine, olanzapine, risperidone, amisulpride, aripiprazole, quetiapine, ziprasidone, zotepine, and sertindole. RESULTS: Only four A-AP (clozapine, quetiapine, olanzapine, and risperidone) were evaluated as treatment of FEP. All of them show the same efficacy as conventional antipsychotics (C-AP). Clozapine has no benefit over C-AP in the treatment of naive patients. It entails a high rate of treatment discontinuation because of the need for regular white blood cell monitoring explained by the risk of agranulocytosis. Hence, clozapine may not be a first-line treatment of FEP. Tolerance to quetiapine and olanzapine is better than C-AP regarding extrapyramidal side effects, but weight gain induced by these two A-AP may be very disabling in a young population. Considering results from head-to-head comparative studies, olanzapine may be more effective than risperidone when an affective component is associated with the FEP symptomatology, but more data are needed to demonstrate this point. Risperidone is a relatively well-tolerated compound when it is prescribed at doses lower than 4 mg/d. It is the only A-AP that showed greater efficacy than C-AP to prevent relapse in patients with FEP. Unfortunately, information regarding the preventive efficacy of the other A-AP are lacking. CONCLUSIONS: Further studies, particularly longer-term studies, are needed to explore the impact of A-AP prescription in FEP on the course of psychotic disorders. The common use of A-AP as treatment of FEP is justified by a relatively better tolerance compared to C-AP, and by the hypothesis-not demonstrated-of a better effect on long-term outcome.

[Improving the management of depression in primary care: review and prospects]. / Prise en charge de la dépression en soins primaires: revue et perspectives.

BACKGROUND: Depression is a common disorder, associated with significant social and functional impairment, and whose natural course tends to chronicity. The majority of the patients suffering from this disorder are attended in primary health care settings. General practitioners represent the greatest part of the prescribers of antidepressants. Unfortunately, there are many barriers with detection and with the treatment of depression, thus only a minority of patients profits from a treatment with effective posology and with sufficient duration. LITERATURE FINDINGS: Several programs of interventions directed by mental health professionals aim at improving the management of depression in primary care. There are single interventions consisting of an educational program to physicians or a single intervention to the patient. The assessments of an educational strategy find some contradictory results. Single interventions are not sufficient by themselves. On the other hand, programs associating several interventions are effective. These associations consist of an educational intervention to the physicians and an intervention or more to the patient treated by antidepressant. Interventions are generally carried out by nurses and supervised by a psychiatrist. Mental health professionals share their informations with general practitioners. Interventions can be telephone or in <>. Telephone interventions have the advantage of a low cost and appear quite as relevant as interventions in <>. RESULTS: But the effectiveness of these programs grows blurred in time, unless the program itself does continue. Moreover, this effectiveness is variable according to the severity of symptomatology. Indeed, the interest of this type of programs for the patients suffering from minor depression is limited. These various programs can be supplemented by the contribution of tools of detection or assessment of the depressive symptomatology to general practitioners, like by the contribution of oral and/or written informations to the patient concerning the disorder from which he suffers. The setting-up of such programs represents a considerable cost but depression is itself responsible for an important cost for our society. Several estimates concerning the setting-up of these programs find a good cost-effectiveness ratio; it should facilitate their installation taking into account their effectiveness. CONCLUSION: A close cooperation, based on the complementarity between general practitioners and mental health professionals is required to improve the management of depression.

[Present contribution of neurosciences to a new clinical reading of obsessive-compulsive disorder]. / Apport actuel des neurosciences à travers une nouvelle lecture clinique du trouble obsessionnel compulsif.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), that affects 2 to 3% of the general population, is characterized by recurrent intrusive thoughts and repetitive, time-consuming behaviors. It is a severely incapacitating mental illness that causes profound impairment in psychosocial functioning and quality of life. Although the physiopathology of OCD is still far from resolved, the existence of a biological basis for OCD is now clearly established and should be interpreted from phenomenological considerations, on the one hand, and in the light of our increasing knowledge of the physiology of cortico-subcortical functional loops, on the other. In a phenomenological view, the heart of the obsessional process is the subject's underlying impression that "something is wrong". In other words, obsessions may be thought of as the permanent perception of a mistake and/or error in certain behavioral situations. Compulsions occur as behavioral responses aimed at relieving the tensions or anxiety generated by the situation. If obtained, this relief may be felt to be a form of reward. Nevertheless, it is only transient, thereby creating a feeling of considerable anxiety. This contributes to immediately reproducing the behavior in a cyclic manner, on the basis of an internal motivational state through an expectation of the reward. Therefore, it can be assumed that several malfunctioning processes are altered within the OCD: 1) error recognition; and, 2) emotion and motivation. This suggests that there is a dysfunction of the brain regions mediating these cognitive and emotional functions. Experimental neurophysiology in laboratory animals indicates the central role of the fronto-subcortical circuits originating in the orbitofrontal and anterior cingulate cortices, respectively. The orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and ventromedial areas are involved in appraisal of the emotional and motivational values of environmental information, and in integrating the subject's prior experience, which is crucial in decision-making. The OFC also contributes to the selection, comparison and judgment of stimuli and error detection. The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is comprised of 1) a ventral or affective region that could keep attention on the internal emotional and motivational status and regulation of autonomic responses, and 2) a dorsal and cognitive region that serves a wide range of functions including attention, working memory, error detection, conflict monitoring, response selection, and anticipation of incoming information. Ventral striatum, that is intimately connected to the OFC and ACC, participates in the preparation, initiation and execution of behavioral responses oriented toward reward delivery following the cognitive and emotional integration of behaviorally relevant information at the cortical level. Functional imaging research in humans has shown an increased functional activity in the OFC, ACC, head of the caudate nucleus and thalamus in OCD patients. These functional abnormalities have been found in basal conditions and during provocation tests. Moreover, the therapeutic efficacy of antidepressants with preponderant serotonin-reuptake inhibiting properties and cognitive-behavioral therapies seems to be associated with a progressive reduction in activity of the OFC, ACC and the caudate nucleus. Therefore, these observations are suggestive of the responsibility of 5HT neurotransmission in the dysfunction of the frontal-subcortical loops that emanate from the OFC and ACC. However, several lines of research suggest that the dopamine system, with which 5HT interacts, may play a major role in the expression of OC symptoms. In conclusion, it seems that in OCD there is a dysfunction of the brain regions that belong to the orbitofrontal and anterior cingulate loops in view of evidence obtained from separate and complementary approaches.

Decision-making in obesity without eating disorders: a systematic review and meta-analysis of Iowa gambling task performances.

BACKGROUND: There is evidence that obesity is associated with impairments in executive functions, such as deficits in decision-making, planning or problem solving, which might interfere with weight loss in obese individuals. We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of decision-making abilities, as measured with the Iowa gambling task (IGT), in obesity without eating disorders. METHODS: A systematic search was conducted to identify studies comparing IGT performances between groups of obese patients without eating disorders and groups of healthy control groups. The standardized mean differences were calculated for the total IGT scores and for the course of IGT scores. Meta-regression analyses were performed to explore the influence of clinical variables on standardized mean differences. RESULTS: Total IGT scores were significantly lower in obese patients compared with normal-weight healthy controls. IGT performances did not differ between groups for the first trials of the task. Significant effect sizes for the last trials of the task were subjected to a high degree of heterogeneity. CONCLUSION: Risky decision-making is impaired in obesity. The clinical importance of non-food-related decision-making impairments remains to be assessed especially in terms of consequences in daily life or the achievement of weight loss. This meta-analysis has been registered in the Prospero database (CRD42016037533).

Excessive checking behavior during an image comparison task in schizophrenia.

BACKGROUND: Patients with schizophrenia display significant working memory and executive deficits. In patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), several studies suggest that working memory dysfunction may be one of the causes of compulsive checking behaviors. Hence, this study aimed at assessing whether patients with schizophrenia were impaired on an image comparison task used to measure checking behaviors, and whether the origin and profile of impairment on this task was different between schizophrenia and OCD. METHODS: Eye movement recordings were used to assess the checking behavior of 24 patients with schizophrenia and 24 control participants who had to decide whether two images were different or identical. The verbal and visuo-spatial components of participants' working memory were measured using the reading span and backward location span tests. RESULTS: Compared to controls, patients with schizophrenia had reduced working memory spans and showed excessive checking behavior when comparing the two images. However, the intensity of their checking behavior was not significantly related to their working memory deficits. CONCLUSIONS: Several recent studies demonstrated that the excessive checking behaviors displayed by patients with OCD were related to working memory dysfunction. The absence of a relationship between the excessive checking behavior of patients with schizophrenia and their working memory deficits suggests that checking behaviors do not have the same origin in the two disorders.

Forgetting what you have checked: a link between working memory impairment and checking behaviors in obsessive-compulsive disorder.

BACKGROUND: Compulsive checking behaviors are common in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Several authors have suggested that these checking rituals could be related to memory deficits. Our aim was to test whether patients with OCD show working memory impairment in relation to their checking behavior. METHODS: We evaluated the verbal and visuospatial components of patients' and controls' working memory using the reading span and backward location span tests. Checking behaviors were measured by recording participants' eye movements during an image comparison task using a non-invasive, infra-red TOBII 1750 eyetracker. Participants were seated, head-free, in a natural position in front of the eyetracker screen where the images were displayed. RESULTS: Patients with OCD made more gaze moves to compare images than controls. Both patients' working memory spans were reduced, and the patients' deficit in the comparison task was negatively related to their working memory spans. CONCLUSIONS: This work demonstrates that checking behavior in OCD is linked to a general reduction of the patients' verbal and visuospatial working memory span.

The associative and limbic thalamus in the pathophysiology of obsessive-compulsive disorder: an experimental study in the monkey.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a frequent psychiatric disorder characterized by repetitive intrusive thoughts and severe anxiety, leading to compulsive behaviors. Although medical treatment is effective in most cases, resistance is observed in about 30% of patients. In this context, deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the caudate or subthalamic nuclei has been recently proposed with encouraging results. However, some patients were unimproved or exhibited awkward side effects. Therefore, exploration of new targets for DBS remains critical in OCD. In the latter, functional imaging studies revealed overactivity in the limbic and associative cortico-subcortical loops encompassing the thalamus. However, the role of the thalamus in the genesis of repetitive behaviors and related anxiety is unknown. Here, we tested the hypothesis that pharmacological-induced overactivity of the medial thalamus could give rise to abnormal behaviors close to that observed in OCD. We modulated the ventral anterior (VA) and medial dorsal (MD) nuclei activity by in situ bicuculline (GABA(A) antagonist) microinjections in subhuman primates and assessed their pharmacological-induced behavior. Bicuculline injections within the VA caused significant repetitive and time-consuming motor acts whereas those performed within the MD induced symptoms of dysautonomic dysregulation along with abnormal vocalizations and marked motor hypoactivity. These findings suggest that overactivation of the VA and MD nuclei of the thalamus provokes compulsive-like behaviors and neurovegetative manifestations usually associated with the feeling of anxiety in OCD patients. In further research, this translational approach should allow us to test the effectiveness and side effects of these thalamic nuclei DBS in monkey and perhaps, in a second step, to propose a transfer of this technique to severely disabled OCD patients.

The glutamate-based genetic immune hypothesis in obsessive-compulsive disorder. An integrative approach from genes to symptoms.

Recent advances in multiple areas of research have contributed to the identification of several pathophysiological factors underlying obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). In particular, the glutamate transporter gene SLC1A1 has been associated with the diagnosis of OCD. Immunological and infectious studies have reported alterations of the immune system and the presence of immune complexes directed against the Borna disease virus in OCD patients. In addition, neuroimaging of OCD patients has demonstrated abnormalities in the anterior cingulate cortex, orbitofrontal cortex, thalamus, and the basal ganglia. Neuropsychological assessments have found several cognitive disruptions that have been identified in OCD, especially impairments in cognitive flexibility. Here, we attempt to bridge the gap between these remarkable findings through several previously unpredicted pathophysiological mechanisms. We propose an integrative hypothesis that indicates how genetic and environmental factors may contribute to the structural and functional alterations of cortico-subcortical circuits, leading to the characteristic cognitive disruptions underlying OCD symptoms.