[Presentation of the AGP and observations on this evaluation system of symptomatology in gerontopsychiatry]. / Présentation du système AGP et réflexions suscitées par ce système d'évaluation de la sémiologie en gérontopsychiatrie.

The first part of the present paper concerns the presentation of the AGP-System. The authors formulate several remarks concerning some items of the 6 sheets of the System, and they stress its advantage over other scales in geriatric psychiatry. Nevertheless, the AGP-System is little used. Therefore, the authors consider that the integration into the AMDP-System of the two specific AGP scales could contribute to an increased success of the AGP-System.

[Psychological indices and longevity]. / Indices psychologiques et longévité.

Among 63 former prisoners of war, aged 54 to 65 years, submitted to a psychometric battery, 16 died within the next three years. The comparison of the deceased and surviving groups indicates that personality variables (MMPI) are more predictive of death than mental deterioration.

[Effects of time variables (time-blind, time gap) on quantitative evaluation of psychopathology]. / Influences de variables temporelles (time-blind, time gap) sur l'évaluation quantitative de la psychopathologie.

Are the objectivity and sensibility of quantitative psychopathology influenced by certain methodological conditions (time-blind evaluation or not, chronological order or random order, suppression of the time gap between two evaluations or not)? Different evaluations of AMDP videotaped interviews were not able to demonstrate systematic effects of these temporal conditions on the evaluation itself. Other variables (monotony, order of sequences, verbal inertia, contingencies) might well play a greater role. Within the methodological limits of the present study, the time-blind evaluation was the most sensitive.

[Neurophysins, vasopressin and cognitive function in aging]. / Neurophysines, vasopressine et fonctions cognitives au cours du vieillissement.

Neurophysins, vasopressin and oxytocin are not restricted to the hypothalamo-neuropituitary system but are also found in different brain area in relation with cognitive and emotional function and with cardiovascular regulation. During early aging it seems to exist a decrease of the hypothalamic and brain content of vasopressin. It appears that in some patients, presumably suffering from a deficit of central vasopressinergic function, exogenous vasopressin could improve arousal and/or memory. The exact place of this peptide in the treatment of the early aging cognitive deficit remains however to be defined.

[Effect of lysine-vasopressin on the Flicker Test and the Buschke Memory Test in elderly patients]. / Influence de la lysine-vasopressine sur le test de Flicker et sur le test de mémoire de Büschke chez des patients âgés.

In the present study, we have tested the cortical arousal (Flicker's Test) and mnesic function (Buschke Test) before and after a short-term Lysine-Vasopressin (LVP) treatment in normal senescent male (Age: 64,3 +/- 3,4). We have not been able to evidence any objective nor subjective improvement in the LVP versus placebo treated group. We do not know the origins of the discrepancies between the different clinical studies published so far concerning the influence of exogenous vasopressin on memory in man.

[Factor analysis of the French revision of the AMDP rating scales. Results of an international study of 388 cases]. / Analyse factorielle de la révision française de l'échelle AMDP. Résultats d'une étude internationale de 388 cas.

A total of 388 patients from 10 Belgian and French Centers were evaluated with the 1981 revision of the psychopathological and somatic scales of the AMDP System. Principal components factor analyses indicate that the somatic items contribute little to the structure. A 10-factors solution of the psychopathological items generate the following factors after orthogonal rotation: Obsessions-Phobias, Dramatization, Anxiety, Depression, Retardation, Organicity, Dissociation, Delusions, Mania, Dysphoria. This structure is similar to the analyses of the previous German edition except for Anxiety (due to additional French items) and Dramatization (which replaces the German factor on Hypochondriasis). The correlations between raw factor scores and item scores of the BPRS and of a similar AMDP-derived scale contribute to the validation of the AMDP factors and to the justification of a 13-item AMDP Syndromic Scale.

[Critical flicker fusion frequency in psychopathology and psychopharmacology. Review of the literature]. / La fréquence critique de fusion visuelle en psychopathologie et en psychopharmacologie. Essai de synthèse de la littérature.

As far back as the second century, Ptolemy reported the apparent immobility of wheel radius at a certain speed. The psychophysical laws of this flicker fusion phenomenon related to the frequency of the light stimulus were established in 1834-1835 by the Englishman Talbot and by the Belgian Plateau, whose thesis in Liège is described as a landmark in the field. CFF is more a measurement of cortical arousal than of visual functions. In psychophysiology, CFF underwent periods of success and oblivion, at the mercy of researcher's enthusiasm or disappointment. At the turn of this century, Pierre Janet measured CFF in the laboratory of physiology of the Salpêtrière Hospital and demonstrated its decrease 'in hysteria, in states of depression, of lowered tension'. All reviewers of CFF literature have overlooked these observations, reported by Henri Piéron in the 'Melanges dedicated to Monsieur Pierre Janet'. When CFF falls into disgrace, it is because of the variability of its results, due to differences in apparatus and designs of the trials as well as the great number and the intrication of the variables which modify CFF thresholds, among them the nonsensory variables. When CFF is reappraised, as it has been the case in psychopharmacology in recent years, the reason is that it represents a brief, easy and economical measure of vigilance which, under certain conditions, seems to be also reliable, valid and sensitive. In the present monograph, the first in French on CFF, the authors try to analyze the most important contributions of the literature from the standpoint of the most relevant variables: characteristics of the stimulus (light intensity, wave form, wavelength, light-dark-ratio, diameter of the flickering point), test procedure (light vs. dark adaptation, visual angle, continuous vs. discontinuous presentation, monocular vs. binocular vision), influence of various physiological or psychological conditions (pupillary diameter, age, training, IQ; anxiety, depression, motivation etc.). The authors summarize the prerequisite for CFF to measure vigilance or aging in psychopharmacological research. The present Monograph is dedicated to the authors' 'Maîtres', who recently became Emeritus Professors, namely the ophthalmologist Roger Weekers, the pioneer of the clinical application of CFF in Belgium, and the psychiatrist Jean Bobon, who pioneered clinical psychopharmacology in Belgium.