[Epidemiology of suicide and suicide attempts]. / Épidémiologie du suicide et de ses tentatives.

France has recently recorded approximately 9,000 to 10,000 suicides and 200,000 suicide attempts per year with regional, age and gender disparities. Men commit suicide more than women, while women make more attempts than men.

[COVID-19: risks of psychological trauma for patients in intensive care or for their families]. / Covid-19 : risques de traumatismes psychologiques pour les malades en réanimation et leurs proches.

For serious cases of COVID-19, with severe respiratory failure due to damage to the lungs by SARS-CoV-2, hospitalisation in intensive care with intubation is often essential. What psychotraumatic risks does this episode present for these patients? Are these sudden, complex treatments, sometimes with fatal outcomes and frequently reported in the media, also a factor in the appearance of psychological trauma for families? These questions are the subject of this clinical reflection.

[Neuropsychopathology of autoimmune encephalitis with anti-NMDA receptor antibodies]. / Neuropsychopathologie de l'encéphalite auto-immune à anticorps anti-récepteurs NMDA.

Autoimmune encephalitis with anti-N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antibodies is a neuropsychiatric disorder, with a psychopathological aspect in its early evolutionary phases, which often leads to psychiatric hospitalizations. This pathology is usually curable without sequelae. Its prognosis depends on the early diagnosis and therapeutic management. It is therefore important to mention this disorder when faced with any sudden neuropsychiatric presentation, especially if it is somewhat atypical and the subject is young.

[Organic and psychiatric intricacy: The complex psychiatric disorder concept, paraclinical investigations]. / Intrications organo-psychiatriques : le concept de troubles psychiatriques complexes, quels examens complémentaires ?

The purpose of this article is to describe complex psychiatric disorders, to recall "minimal classical" explorations in psychiatry, to describe the concept of "complex psychiatric disorders" and to propose a systematized method of exploration. Some organic diseases are well known for their links with psychiatric disorders (manic syndrome and hyperthyroidism, depressive syndrome and corticotropic insufficiency, anxiety disorder and heart disease, etc.). Many other neurological, autoimmune, metabolic, paraneoplastic or endocrine pathologies can have essentially psycho-behavioral manifestations before being neurological or systemic. A large number of factors (nutritional, toxic, immunological, etc.), often ignored, influence the links between organicity and psychiatric pathologies. It is necessary to optimize the medical management of these patients in whom the psychiatric diagnosis masks a curable organo-psychiatric cause.

Steroid-responsive encephalopathy associated with autoimmune thyroiditis (SREAT): Characteristics, treatment and outcome in 251 cases from the literature.

BACKGROUND: Steroid-responsive encephalopathy and associated autoimmune thyroiditis (SREAT) is characterized by encephalopathy and the presence of antithyroid antibodies. We describe the clinical presentation, outcome and treatments for SREAT by a systematic review of the literature. METHODS: MEDLINE via PubMed, Web of Science and the Cochrane Library were searched for articles published until 2015. Inclusion criteria were unexplained encephalopathy with antithyroid antibodies. RESULTS: We found reports of 251 patients (median age 52years [range 18-86], 73% females, 80 [32%] with preexisting thyroiditis). Patients presented encephalitis signs with convulsions (n=117; 47%), confusion (n=115, 46%), speech disorder (n=91, 37%), memory impairment (n=107, 43%), gait disturbance (n=67, 27%) and persecutory delusions (n=61, 25%). Twenty-eight patients (11%) presented progressive memory impairment and 26 (10%) isolated psychiatric disorders. In serum, 34% of patients were positive for anti-thyroid peroxidase (TPO) antibodies, 7% for anti-thyroglobulin (TG) antibodies, and 69% both. Thyroid-stimulating hormone levels were usually normal, at 2 UI/ml [0.001-205]. Cerebrospinal fluid from 10/53 patients (19%) was positive for anti-TPO antibodies, 2/53 (4%) anti-TG antibodies and 28 (53%) both. Electroencephalography findings were abnormal for 82% of patients, showing diffuse slowing consistent with encephalopathy (70%) or epileptic activity (14%). The first-line treatment was steroids in 193 patients and other immunosuppressive drugs in 10 cases. At a median follow-up of 12months [range 0.2-110], 91% of patients showed complete or partial neurological response, with anti-TPO and -TG antibody titers at 347 UI/ml [0-825,000] and 110 UI/ml [0-50,892], respectively. During follow-up, 40 patients (16%) experienced at least one relapse. Relapse was more frequent in patients with initial coma (26% vs 13%, p=0.08). CONCLUSION: The diagnosis of SREAT should be suspected in case of encephalopathy without obvious cause, to quickly start corticosteroid treatment. The exact modalities of treatment must be defined.