Acta psychiatrica Belgica最新文献

Some stimulating areas in the field of neuropsychological research on sleep-wake behaviour are presented in this introductory paper using recent publications by eminent researchers. In the first part the cerebral asymmetry theory proposed by Ornstein is presented. Do the rhythmic oscillations of the sleeping brain go together with different forms of cognitive information processing? In the second part the work of some Italian researchers on dreaming experience in neurological patients is presented and commented. At a moment when the emphasis in sleep research is on medical-biological aspects, psychologists are challenged to produce some creative ideas in the field of neurocognition of sleep-wake behaviour.

Hypothalamo-pituitary axis disturbances, such as plasma cortisol escape after dexamethasone (DXM) administration or blunted TSH response to TRH, and sleep architecture abnormalities such as shortened REM latency are frequently encountered in depressive disorders. These anomalies only occur in a subgroup of depressed patients and could thus identify a biological or endogenous component to depressive illness. Several definitions of this endogenous depression have been proposed. In this regard, using biological criteria, the Newcastle scale remains the strongest validated clinical definition. In this study, 93 patients (58 women and 35 men) aged 15-79 years (mean: 42) who complained about a depressed mood were admitted for biological investigations (DXM and TRH tests, sleep EEG recording) after a drug wash-out period of at least 10 days. Patients were assessed with the Newcastle scale and diagnosed with RDC using the SADS. After the effects of age, gender and severity of illness were controlled for, multiple regression analyses showed that depressive pychomotor activity and weight loss were the 2 items of the Newcastle scale most contributing to explain the variances of the neuroendocrine tests results. Moreover, when the sample was dichotomized according to the presence of these 2 items, the 2 groups had significantly different post DXM cortisol values, TSH levels after TRH and REM latency values. The 2 groups (biological and non-biological) were then characterized using 16 depressive symptoms more frequently cited in 15 operational definitions of endogenous depression. A logistic regression analysis showed that weight loss, anhedonia, early awakening, and morning worsening of mood were the 4 symptoms that best distinguished biological from non-biological patients group. These symptoms could reflect biological abnormalities in depression and form the core of the endogenous depression.

We often forget Freud's share for zoology. Many primary ideas are issued from "Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals". The general attitude is evolutionistic, with his reasoning in becoming, fixation-regression, ontogeny and history in Man. This attitude is found again on its neurological side in MacLean and his verbal translation of cerebral levels.

Philippe-Charles Schmerling, often considered as the founder of paleontology, was undoubtedly a prominent personality in the province of Liège. The author evoques the beginning of paleontologic and prehistoric research in Wallonia through the biography and the analysis of Schmerling's works. Some of his contributions were completely disregarded, especially in the field of paleopathology where he can really be considered as a founder. Posterity will mainly retain his assertion about the contemporaneity of mankind with extinct animal species.

Setting behavioral disturbances affecting humans in a natural environmental context indicates the presence of phylogenetic components in their etiology. Hysterical conversion disorders provide a good illustration. The biological model to which they can be traced seems to be the "distraction display," originally intended to deceive predators and lure them away from the offspring or threatened related individuals. Hysterical tendance to draw attention on oneself could thus paradoxically be seen as performing an altruistic function.

The contribution of the phylogenesis to the study of the functional organisation of brain constitutes an essential component in the integration of the current data regarding the knowledge of the central nervous system. The three evolutive structures evidenced by McLean allowed manifestation of a biological diversity particularly expressed in the neommamalian brain. Studying this biological diversity constitutes one of the field of comparative biochemistry. In this article, the authors attempt to characterize evolution through the study of GABA-receptors.

Two neurohypophyseal peptides (vasopressin or antidiuretic hormone and oxytocin) belong to a family of peptides that are broadly widespread in the animal kingdom. These peptides are already found in unicellular species and differently distributed in hydra. Schematically, basic peptides related to vasopressin can be distinguished from neutral peptides related to oxytocin. Phylogenetic evolution of these two peptides shows that basic compounds are usually implicated in water metabolism regulation, but also through their central way of action, in important behaviour connected with survival of mankind (alertness, memorization, cardiovascular acceleration...) although neutral compounds are implicated in reproductive functions (carriage of spermatozoids in female genital tractus, expulsion phase of delivery, milk ejection reflex). Concerning behaviour, these compounds demonstrate properties favouring between subjects relationship (maternal behaviour settlement, including in birds, building of social links). Neuropsychiatric disturbances leading to an excess or a deficit of the central production of one of the groups of these neuropeptides could then be explained on basis of these general conclusions.