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Language, which is unique in each subject, can reflect how a patient copes with disease. The method ALCESTE used here made it possible at the same time to analyse the subject's verbal behavior and speech patterns at several levels. The present study was designed to analyse during a 3-mo. period the language production of subjects with paranoia exhibiting delusional disorder (nonbizarre delusions without any hallucination) of imaginative subtype. The subjects produced very specific speech without any semantic or syntactic impairment and disruption in language or thinking processes, but with a poverty of speech content. The main feature of the study was the analysis of the underlying syntactic processes showing that the tested patients presented a 'hard' sense of identity: the patient found always a strong place for himself among the various types of discourse whatever their topics.

Presents several letters to the editor concerning the psychiatry. Category of vanity disorders; Medical history of major depressive episode; Increase on suicide-prevention efforts.

A 40-year-old woman suffering from major depression with psychotic features was unresponsive to conventional therapy. After the administration of a wide range of drug treatments and ECT, she received clozapine. Depressive symptoms improved and psychotic features disappeared. It is suggested that clozapine could be efficient in psychotic refractory depression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1927, Ernst Kretschmer published the second German edition of “Paranoia and sensitivity: contribution to the problem of paranoia and psychiatric theory of character” in which Kretschmer opposes Kraepelin and abandons the idea of a persecutory delusion arising from an isolated point, evolving inexorably to the chronic state according to a rigid and progressive paranoid schema. In opposition to this implacable evolution, which for Kraepelin shows the progressive advance of an illness, Kretschmer posits the instabililty of the delusion and the frequent occurrence of an “abortive” paranoia: sensitive to the context, variable over time.Moreover, this author abandons the idea of identifying a single sensitive character, describing asthenic, psychopathic, expansive forms. He does nevertheless bring out an essential type of existence, seeking a common trait behind this clinical variability: retention of affects. This clinical approach is similar in some respects to the phenomenological approach: the reduction of any theory on paranoia and the free variation on the sensitive characters make it possible to go beyond the facticity of clinical pictures and to identify the eidetic characters of a paranoid type.We propose to identify other essential manifestations of such an existential type, and to envisage their relations with the melancholic type and the schizophrenic type. In particular we will examine the essential reasons for the sensitive''s failure in meeting others, in reference to Buytendjik''s phenomenology of meeting. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Objective: This study was designed to analyze the language of patients with schizophrenia exhibiting negative symptoms during a 3-month period., Method: The computer-assisted ALCESTE method was used to simultaneously analyze the subjects' oral behaviour and speech patterns at various levels., Results: The tested subjects had very specific speech patterns. Most significantly, analysis of the underlying syntactic processes showed that the patients exhibited a sense of identity, however minimum, based on their own pathologies and on the surrounding world. In our previous study, no such characteristics were observed in the discourse of schizophrenia patients with delusions (exhibiting positive symptoms). This suggests that the minimum sense of identity that develops in patients with schizophrenia allows them to avoid positive symptoms., Conclusion: In studies of language production by subjects suffering from schizophrenia, it is necessary to distinguish between patients with positive symptoms and those with negative symptoms. The speech patterns of these 2 groups have to be analyzed separately, which has not been done previously, since the groups differ in too many respects.

The personalities of 60 patients suffering from episodes of retrosternal pain were evaluated by means of psychological tests ( Cattel 's questionnaire and Eysenck's personality inventory) and semi-directive interviews. The patients fell into three groups: group I patients (n = 21) had atheromatous lesions of the coronary arteries detected at angiography; group II patients (n = 19) had normal or subnormal coronary arteries, but angiography demonstrated arterial spasm; group III patients (n = 20) had angiographically normal coronary arteries without spasm. A statistically significant difference (p less than 0.05) was noted between groups I and II, but not between groups II and III. Eleven of the 21 patients in group I presented with an obsessional personality which was not found in groups II and III where 13/19 and 16/20 patients respectively had a hysterical personality.

According to the literature, the transsexual phenomenon can be assessed as a distinct psychiatric illness. Transsexualism, a rare but spectacular disorder, realizes a gender identity reversal raising questions regarding systems of psychiatric diagnosis, nosology and treatment. A better clinical knowledge of this "experiment" and its follow-up allow studying processes contributory to marked deviation of gender identity and furthering concepts of development of masculinity and feminity. Current research deals with hypotheses that can be stated as testable propositions about underlying dynamics in various fields: learning factors, psychoanalytic components and psycho-biological data. Focusing on the early infantile development and the environmental influences reflects a variety of non specific psychogenetic precursors. The treatment of "gender dysphoria syndrom", i.e. hormonal treatment, sex-reassignment surgery and psychotherapic processes, aims towards réduction of psychic pain and social adjustment in the cross-gender role. Transsexual phenomenon largely overlaps the psychopathological area; beyond surgical and medical aspects, social implications and legal positions refer to an ethical problem.

In a medical and biological perspective, the authors analyse the relations existing between diabetes mellitus and affective disorders on the basis of clinical, therapeutic, metabolic, neuro-endocrinal and epidemiological arguments. Besides the presentation of an original clinical case, the principal data of literature are detailed and criticized; some orientations of the future research concerning the explaining of these relations are given as well.