Psychotic features, particularly mood incongruence, as a hallmark of severity of bipolar I disorder.

BACKGROUND: The occurrence of psychotic features within mood episodes in patients with bipolar I disorder (BD I) has been associated in some studies with a more severe clinical and socio-professional profile. In contrast, other studies establishing the associations of psychotic features in BD I, and in particular of mood-congruent (MC) and mood-incongruent (MI) features, with clinical characteristics have yielded contradictory results. However, many pre-existing studies have been affected by serious methodological limitations. Using a sample of thoroughly assessed patients with BD I our aims were to: (1) establish the proportion of those with MI and MC features, and (2) compare BD I patients with and without psychotic features as well as those with MI to those with MC features on a wide array of socio-demographic and clinical characteristics including course, psychiatric comorbidity and treatment. METHODS: A sample of 162 treated patients with BD I (60.5% female, mean age = 41.4 (s.d: 10.2) years) was recruited within a large family study of mood disorders. Clinical, course and treatment characteristics relied on information elicited through direct diagnostic interviews, family history reports and medical records. RESULTS: (1) A total of 96 patients (59.3%) had experienced psychotic features over their lifetime. Among them, 44.8% revealed MI features at least once in their lives. (2) Patients with psychotic features were much less likely to be professionally active, revealed alcohol abuse more frequently and used health care, particularly inpatient treatment, more frequently than those without psychotic features. Within patients with psychotic symptoms, those with MI features showed more clinical severity in terms of a higher likelihood of reporting hallucinations, suicidal attempts and comorbid cannabis dependence. CONCLUSION: Our data provide additional support for both the distinction between BD-I with and without psychotic features as well as the distinction between MI and MC psychotic features. The more severe course of patients with psychotic features, and particularly those with MI psychotic features, highlights the need for thorough psychopathological evaluations to assess the presence of these symptoms to install appropriate treatment.

Environmental factors in offspring of parents with mood disorders and their role in parent-child transmission: findings from a 14-year prospective high-risk study.

BACKGROUND: The factors involved in the transmission of mood disorders are only partially elucidated. Aside from genes, the family environment might play a crucial role in parent-child transmission. Our goals were to (1) assess the associations of parental bipolar disorder (BPD) and Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) with individual or shared family environmental factors, including traumatic events in offspring, parental separation, family cohesion and parental attitudes; and 2) test whether these factors were mediators of the association between exposure to parental mood disorders and the onset of these disorders in offspring. METHODS: The sample stems from an ongoing family high-risk study of mood disorders conducted in the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Given the strong impact of the age of onset of parental disorders on their transmission to children, parental disorders were dichotomized according to the onset (cut-off 21 years). Probands with early-onset (n = 30) and later-onset BPD (n = 51), early-onset (n = 21) and later-onset MDD (n = 47) and controls (n = 65), along with their spouses (n = 193) and offspring (n = 388; < 18 years on study inclusion), were assessed over a mean follow-up duration of 14 years (s.d: 4.6). The environmental measures were based on reports by offspring collected before the onset of their first mood episode. RESULTS: Offspring of probands with later-onset BPD and offspring of probands with both early-onset and later-onset MDD reported traumatic events more frequently than comparison offspring, whereas exposure to parental separation was more frequent in all groups of high-risk offspring. Moreover, several familial environment scores including parenting attitudes differed between offspring of probands with BPD and comparison offspring. However, none of these factors were mediators of the parent-child transmission of BPD. Among the environmental factors, traumatic events were shown to be modest mediators of the transmission of early-onset MDD. CONCLUSIONS: Our data do not support the implication of the assessed environmental factors in the parent-child transmission of BPD. In contrast to BPD, traumatic events partially mediate the parent-child transmission of early-onset MDD, which has important implications for intervention and prevention. Early therapeutic efforts in offspring exposed to these events are likely to reduce their deleterious impact on the risk of subsequent MDD.

[If a patient has never experienced depression, should we tell him he has bipolar disorder? An updated systematic review on recurrent mania]. / Faut-il annoncer un diagnostic de trouble bipolaire à un patient qui n'a jamais connu la dépression ? Une revue systématique actualisée sur la manie récurrente.

CONTEXT: Bipolar disorder (BD) is a severe and recurrent mood disorder. It is characterized by episodic changes in mood and energy/activity levels that are increased during mania/hypomania or decreased during depression. Recurrent mania (RM) is a mood disorder, which would be defined by at least two manic/hypomanic without depressive episodes. Despite a rich body of clinical descriptions, RM is still not integrated into the latest editions of disease classifications and continues to be subsumed under BD in clinical practice. OBJECTIVES: We conducted a systematic review of the literature to pool data about RM prevalence within BD groups, identify differences between RM and BD and develop reliable knowledge about specificities of RM. Furthermore, we sought to identify the methodological bias inherent to RM studies. METHOD: Relevant publications were identified by a systematic search of PubMed, Embase, ScienceDirect and PsychInfo databases according to PRISMA criteria, with no limitation of date. The following MESH terms were used: (mania OR manic) AND (unipolar) NOT (depress*) OR ("unipolar mania" OR "unipolar manic" NOT "depress*"). RESULTS: Twenty-three (23) of 186identified studies met eligibility criteria for our systematic review. The total sample included 1118RM subjects among 4796BD subjects. The weighted mean of RM prevalence was 23.2%. Compared to BD, RM was characterized by a predominance of men, an earlier age at illness onset, less rapid cycles and seasonal variations, longer manic episodes, less specific clinical features (suicide attempts, anxious disorders, catatonic symptoms, irritability, hyperactivity, racing thoughts), less family history of depression, more addictive comorbidities and worse response to lithium prophylaxis (P<0.05). However, many studies failed to replicate these significant differences. LIMITS: RM studies were mainly retrospective. The major bias of RM studies were the lack of consensus on the defining criteria for RM and the risk of unreported depressive episodes, both in charts that were reviewed in retrospective studies and in prospective studies with insufficient follow-up duration. CONCLUSION: Although the literature on RM remains sparse, many authors agree that RM should be distinguished from BD. RM would concern almost 1 in 4 BD patients. Furthermore, several clinical variables could differentiate this mood disease from BD and may orient the specific therapeutic choice. However, clinical criteria are still not reliable enough to make a diagnosis of RM. Further studies are required to replicate the results of existing studies and to adjust for the effect of methodological biases.

[Specialized training in geriatric psychiatry during residency in France]. / La psychiatrie de la personne âgée au sein du diplôme d'études spécialisées de psychiatrie en France : résultat d'une enquête nationale.

Aging of the population is a growing concern in developed countries. Therefore, geriatric psychiatry has gradually emerged from general psychiatry. Many names have been proposed to term this sub-specialty: old age psychiatry (OAP), psychogeriatrics, geropsychiatry. A working group of the French federation of psychiatric trainees (AFFEP) set up an inventory of the theoretical instruction and clinical practice of OAP during the training of psychiatrists in France. Methods. A survey of both academic teaching and practical training for OAP was carried out in the 28 local AFFEP representatives of every French medical residency district, including overseas. We assessed the supply of general courses and seminars devoted to OAP during the training of French residents in psychiatry, and the offer of university or inter-university degrees as well as the possibility of specialized internship in every residency district. Results. 96% of French medical residency districts offered general courses of OAP with a mean volume of 11.5 hours along the four years of psychiatric training in France. Fifty percent of medical residency districts proposed at least one seminar devoted to OAP. Half of medical residency districts also offer a specialized university or inter-university degree. Concerning clinical practice, 86% of medical residency districts had one internship dedicated to OAP, in 39% of cases in teaching hospitals. Conclusion. Nationwide, there is an overall effort to make OAP available to French psychiatric residents by general courses and internship, but some disparity appeared in academic teaching (i.e. offering seminars and university/inter-university degrees) according to various residency districts.

[Personality disorders and aging]. / Troubles de la personnalité et vieillissement.

Personality disorder can be defined as an enduring pattern of inner experience and behavior that markedly deviates from the expectations of the individual's culture. With aging, personality disorders may improve or worsen. Their prevalence in the elderly is slightly lower than the prevalence in young adult. Furthermore, their comorbidity and co-occurrence are the rule with an increased risk of late decompensation. Categorical approach used in the current international classifications (ICD-10 and DSM-5) is not adapted to the specificities of the elderly with consequent overrepresentation of "unspecified personality disorder". However, a pathological personality tends to complicate all interventions for somatic or psychological care in the elderly. Thus, this review describes changes in personality disorders related to aging in order to help the clinician to better identify these disorders. Indeed, recognizing a pathological personality in the elderly improves its management both in the field of mental health and in somatic disorders in which the role of personality must be evaluated. Personality and its disorders should therefore be taken into account in all geriatric practices, in particular in the context of cognitive disorders.