Influence of affective words on lexical decision task in major depression

In cognitive science, lexical decision task is used to investigate visual word recognition and lexical access. The issue of whether or not individuals who are depressed differ in their access to affectively laden words and specifically to words that have negative affect was examined. Based on some aspects of the Resource Allocation Model (Ellis), it was postulated that patients suffering from depression take more time to recognize items from an affective-loaded list. In order to compare their behavior in a lexical decision task, patients suffering from depression and healthy controls were studied. We hoped to find an interaction between the mood state of subjects and the categories (affective or neutral) of words. Two groups of right-handed adults served as subjects in our experiment. The first group consisted of 11 patients suffering from depression (mean age: 40.2; sd: 6.8). All of this group met the DSM-III-R and the Research Diagnostic Criteria for major depressive disorder. Severity of their disease was rated using the 24-item Hamilton Depressive Rating Scale. All patients suffering from depression were without psychotropic medication. The control group was composed of 24 subjects (mean age: 32.7; sd: 7.9). A depressive word-list and a neutral word-list were built and a computer was used for the lexical-decision task. A longer reaction time to detect the non-word stimuli (F1,33 = 11.19, p < 0.01) was observed with the patients by comparison to the normal subjects. In the analysis of the word stimuli, a group by list interaction (F1,33 = 7.18, p < 0.01) was found.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

[Organic personality syndrome in multiple sclerosis and effect of stress on recurrent attacks]

This study focuses on a sample of 35 patients who had recently suffered an attack of multiple sclerosis. They were first subjected to the so-called life stress method in order to look for a connection between life stresses and the attacks of multiple sclerosis. The sample was compared with a paired control population composed of patients recruited from admission departments and medical emergency departments. The AMDP psychopathological evaluation method was applied to the sample, to establish a characteristic mental profile of these patients. Three types of results are highlighted. First, the comparison of the event scores shows a significant difference between the population of patients suffering from an outbreak of multiple sclerosis and the control population. A connection between "life stresses" and the triggering of the outbreaks of multiple sclerosis is therefore mentioned and discussed. Second, the application of the system of the Association de méthodologie et de documentation psychiatrique brings out a mental profile common to patients suffering from multiple sclerosis, consisting of a very specific association of mood disorders: dysphoria, euphoria and mania on the one hand, and depression, anxiety and dramatization on the other, with relative anosognosia. The correlation between dysphoria, the syndrome's principal characteristic, and the event score adds another argument in favour of the connection between life stresses and the evolution of the disease. The main components of this mental profile are primarily correlated with the existence of a neuropsychology suggestive of a medial basal frontal syndrome.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

[Neuropsychologic function of the depressive patient. A lexical decision investigation in major depression]

According to the Resource Allocation Model, it is logical to think that emotional mood states modulate the allocation of capacity, most cognitive tasks require some allocation of capacity, and in many instances there is a positive correlation between effort and memory. In cognitive science, the experimental paradigm of lexical decision task is used to investigate visual words recognition and lexical access. According to the Resource Allocation Model, we postulated that depressed patients take more time to recognize items from an affective loaded list. In order to compare their behavior in lexical decision task in this study, depressed patients and healthy controls were studied. We hoped to find an interaction between the mood state of subjects and the categories (affective or neutral) of words. This kind of interaction is expected to figure among the cognitive markers of depression. Two groups of right-handed adults served as subjects in our experiment. The subjects were living in the north west region of Quebec. The first group consisted of 11 depressed patients (mean age: 40.2; SD: 6.8). All of them met the DSM III criteria for major depressive disorder and the RDC. Patients were rated using the 24-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS). All depressed patients were without medications. The control group was composed with 24 subjects (mean age: 32.7; SD: 7.9). We built a depressive word-list (Mood-list) and a neutral word-list (Neutral-list) and used a computer for the lexical-decision task. We noted a significant interaction [F(1.33) = 10,035, p < 0.001] between the subjects group (depression vs control) and the words category (Moodlist vs Neutral-list).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

[Contemporary aspects of psychiatry in Communist China]

Psychiatry in Communist China is at a delicate phase where it is drawn both to modern Western medicine and to the wealth of traditional medicine. This is conveyed through accounts of some present-day situations as seen by the author during stays in Peking and Shanghai. After the treatment provided in various hospitals for acute-care and chronic-care patients is described, we are introduced to the organization of mental health at the various levels of hospital and external structures. A general survey of the research being done in epidemiology, neurology and traditional medicine at the Peking Research Centre is also presented. The novel nosography reveals one particular entity: phasophrenia, described as a stereotyped and recurring acute psychotic episode that responds poorly to neuroleptic chemotherapy. Finally, the medico-legal aspects of psychiatry and the effects of the new birth-rate policy are briefly discussed.