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In this article, we propose to review the recent literature on Internet addiction (AI) by addressing several themes : we will begin by detailing the various questions that have arisen over time as to the reality of the syndrome and the responses that have been provided by the clinical and neuroimaging studies ; we will then discuss comorbidity problems as well as factors favoring the emergence of the AI and its consequences on health ; we will then detail the different treatments proposed and in a dialectical spirit, we will discuss the advantages that a moderate use of the Internet can have on the cognitive functioning as well as different tracks for future researches.

Dans cet article, nous nous proposons de passer en revue la littérature récente concernant l'addiction à Internet (AI) en abordant plusieurs thématiques : nous commencerons par détailler les différentes questions qui se sont posées au cours du temps quant à la réalité du syndrome et les réponses qui ont été apportées par la clinique et par les études de neuro-imagerie ; nous traiterons ensuite des problèmes de comorbidité ainsi que des facteurs favorisant l'apparition de l'AI et ses conséquences sur la santé ; nous détaillerons ensuite les différents traitements proposés puis, dans un esprit dialectique, traiterons dans nos conclusions des avantages que peut avoir l'usage modéré d'Internet sur le fonctionnement cognitif ainsi que des différentes pistes pour de futures recherches.

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In this paper, we discuss various issues related to the concept of resilience, which is conventionally defined as a dynamic process allowing for a positive adaptation in a context of significant adversity. First, we try to draw the reader's attention to the importance of the concept of resilience in terms of public health. Second, we address the difficulty of measuring resilience in a relevant and operational manner. Third, we then address the question of whether resilience can be conceived only in the context of a confrontation with trauma, or whether its application can be relevant to the everyday nontraumatic adversity. In this regard, we introduce and define another coping strategy which is the Sense of Coherence (SOC). Fourth, we discuss the nature of resilience, that is to say, whether it should be considered as a personality trait or as an aptitude. We try to show that this problem arises from the difficulty to specify the emotional processes involved in resilience. Finally, we propose future research perspectives that should allow us to better understand the concept of resilience.

Dans cet article, nous abordons différentes questions relatives au concept de résilience, classiquement définie comme un processus dynamique permettant une adaptation positive dans un contexte d'adversité significative. Premièrement, nous tentons d'attirer l'attention du lecteur sur l'importance du concept de résilience en termes de santé publique. Deuxièmement, nous abordons la question de la difficulté à mesurer la résilience de façon pertinente et opérationnelle. Troisièmement, nous abordons ensuite la question de savoir si la résilience ne peut se concevoir que dans le contexte d'une confrontation à un traumatisme ou si son application peut être pertinente par rapport à l'adversité quotidienne, non traumatique, mais que chacun rencontre au cours de son existence. A ce propos, nous introduisons et définissons une autre stratégie de coping qui est le Sens de la Cohérence (Sense of Coherence/ SOC). Quatrièmement, nous traitons ensuite de la nature-même de la résilience, c'est-à-dire le fait de déterminer si elle doit être considérée soit comme un trait de personnalité, soit comme une aptitude. Nous tentons de montrer que cette problématique provient de la difficulté à préciser les processus émotionnels en jeu dans la résilience. Enfin, nous proposons des perspectives de recherches futures qui devraient permettre d'appréhender de manière plus fine le concept de résilience.

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The so-called Palo Alto school has produced a fundamental work in the comprehension of human communication. Palo Alto school defined the theoretical concepts of brief therapies and the foundations of systemic therapies. First, this article proposes to specify the sociological context in which systemic theories have emerged by differentiating the paradigms of modern and post-modern societies. Second, it defines some keystone concepts in the field of brief therapies : the homeostasis, the positive and negative feedbacks, the changes of level 1 and 2, the identified patient, the paradoxical injunction and the reframing. Finally, it underlines the risks of a misuse of brief therapies. Indeed, on a superficial level, brief therapies could seem very easy to use. In reality, they are based on great amount of theories and require an important professional experience and an in-depth training.

L'école dite de Palo Alto a produit un travail gigantesque dans le domaine de la compréhension de la communication entre les êtres humains. Elle a jeté les bases de ce qui allait devenir la thérapie systémique. C'est également à partir des travaux de l'école de Palo Alto que sont issus les concepts sous-tendant ce que l'on désigne par le terme de thérapies brèves. Cet article se propose d'abord de repréciser le contexte sociologique au sein duquel les théories systémiques ont vu le jour en différenciant les paradigmes en vigueur dans les sociétés dites modernes et post-modernes. Il présente ensuite les notions de base des thérapies brèves en décrivant différents concepts fondamentaux comme l'homéostasie, les boucles de rétroaction, les changements de niveau 1 et de niveau 2, le patient désigné, l'injonction paradoxale et le recadrage. Enfin, il se termine par une mise en garde contre une utilisation inappropriée des thérapies brèves qui, pouvant apparaître relativement simples en première approche, sont en réalité sous-tendues par un gigantesque corpus théorique et requièrent une grande expérience professionnelle de la part du praticien.

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The concept of resilience refers to the capacity of certain individuals either to adapt successfully to adversity, or to function in a competent manner when faced with a traumatic situation. The concept of resilience represents a new paradigm in the field of clinical psychology. It puts into perspective determinist models, whether they be psychological (experiences incurred during the first years of life forever seal the destiny of a subject) or biological (an individual is defined by his/her genes). It permits the study of an individual according to his/her resources and no longer according to his/her faults. Nevertheless, for several years, resilience has suffered from its own success by being frequently used in inappropriate contexts. With the aim of better understanding this concept and of avoiding its determinist and normative distortion, we present here a review of the different factors (psychological, family, sociological and biological factors) contributing to the process of resilience. Moreover, in the discussion, we present some methodological and conceptual issues presented by the concept of resilience.

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The authors make a review of the different kinds of marital violence and of the risk factors, which lead to that kind of violence mostly by men who batter their partner. The authors make a review of the possible preventions and of the treatment of violent men. The most efficient treatment does combine psychotherapy and psychopharmacotherapy as well as sociotherapy.

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UNLABELLED: The concept of psychopathy has received many definitions for the first days of psychiatry. Recently, the Hare's Psychopathy Check List Revised has been created. This scale has the advantage to investigate the classically characteristic traits of the syndrome (need of stimulation, lack of culpability, superficial activity, lack of empathy, impassivity) and to point out the early development of behavior disturbances. In the American classification (DSM IV), oppositional and aggressive behavior in child and adolescent is grouped under the Conduct Disorder diagnostic criteria. This trouble appears to be a strong predictive factor of psychopathy in adult. Identifying the high risk factors of evolution to psychopathic personality would allow an earlier intervention and prevention by multisystemic interventions for example. The present study aims to evaluate in what measure characteristic traits of psychopathy in adults are present in severe juvenile offenders and to point out, in a second time, the differences between adolescents meeting the DSM IV criteria for Conduct Disorder and a control population by a dimensional personality inventory. METHOD: The sample consists in 47 severe juvenile offenders referred for at least 3 months by a Youth Court to a Public Institution for Youth Protection (Belgium, Wauthier-Braine, 1999-2001), who have given an oral contentment and completely fulfilled the Temperament and Character Inventory-TCI. We have collected data about: schooling year by year, number of fails, changes of school; antecedents of oppositional defiant disorder with provocation (ODD, DSM IV criteria); antecedent of Conduct Disorder (CD, DSM IV criteria); penal antecedents (Youth Judge, works of general interest, placements); medico-psychological antecedents (consultation to a psychologist or a psychiatrist, hospitalization, illness, surgical intervention); psychoactive drug use or abuse. We used the TCI--Temperament and Character Inventory. This is a dimensional personality inventory. Based on biological, genetic and clinical hypothesis, it describes 2 types of variables defining personality: Variables of temperament (genetically transmitted and biologically controlled), and Variables of character (learned part of the personality reflecting the degree of adaptation and maturity, varying with environment through development). We have chosen this tool because of its dimensional aspect. Adolescence being a time of psychological and personality changes, such a tool is more useful than a categorical one. We also used this tool to verify the existence of the specific triad described by Cloninger and Svrakic. According to these authors, psychopathic personality in adult is characterized by a specific triad in which novelty seeking is high while harm avoidance and reward dependence are low. These observations are highly correlated to Hare's definition of psychopathy. We give the principal scores for the 7 personality dimensions expressed in global scores (total of the items for each dimension) and pondered ones (global scores divided by the number of items of the dimension x 100). RESULTS: Statistical analysis was performed with the Stateview 5.0 t-test program for data analysis. Statistical results show the absence of a statistically significant difference between the 2 groups for TCI 1, 4.5 and 7 but a statistically significant difference for TCI 2, 3 and 6 (p <.0001). DISCUSSION: The first limitation of our study is linked to the sample composed of young adolescents placed in an Institution for Youth Protection who doesn't reflect the whole population of offenders. A second limitation is correlated to the randomization system: randomization for age but not for sex, ethnical and cultural origin and socioeconomic status. Our results with adolescent offenders don't completely meet the Cloninger's psychopathy triad in adults. Moreover, in literature data, aggressive behavior is correlated to high novelty seeking and associated with low harm avoidance, reward dependence and persistence in children, these items are predictive of antisocial behavior in teenage and young adulthood. In our sample where antisocial behaviors are severe, we should be expecting a high novelty seeking but that is not the case. Our results should be explained by the fact that adolescence in itself is a more powerful factor of high novelty seeking than psychopathic trait. Harm avoidance and reward dependence seem to be a real problem in offending population and reflect aggressive behaviors in adolescents (lack of harm perception, sensitivity and empathy). Another interesting element is the cooperation factor that is significantly lower in the study group. This seems to comfort the hypothesis of a lower social maturity in institutionalized adolescents. CONCLUSION: Regarding to a control group subjects from 15 to 25 years old, adolescent offenders observed in an Institution for Youth Protection show a significantly different profile in the TCI for Harm Avoidance, Reward Dependence and Cooperation. Regarding to adult psychopaths, adolescent offenders partially meet the classical diagnostic triad of psychopathy, what should be indicating that such adolescents already show emotional perturbations: lower harm avoidance, reward dependence and cooperation than control population. This third factor is not characteristic of psychopathy but reflects relational difficulties, which are important in adolescent offenders. So, our study point out the complex psychopathology of adolescent offenders and the coexistence in such adolescents of attachment disorder and the difficulty to treat them because of their multiple lacks (cognitive, psychopathological, familial and scholar). We think important to discuss the necessity of approaches based on the development of personal creative abilities and involving all the professionals concerned in the young's universe. Future researches should compare adolescent offenders and controls randomized for age, sex, socioeconomic, ethnical and cultural status. They also should test specifically the diagnostic triad of psychopathology developed by Cloninger, especially the novelty seeking dimension. Moreover, it would be interesting to integrate these results in a wider protocol and to compare them with clinical, forensic and neurocognitive data, individually and within the familial context.

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PURPOSE: Adverse social experiences are frequently invoked to explain the higher rate of psychosis among migrant groups. The aim of the present study was to establish the socio-environmental factors distinguishing migrant psychotic patients from autochthonous patients. SUBJECTS AND METHOD: We conducted a cross-sectional survey involving 341 migrant psychotic patients matched for age and gender with 341 autochthonous psychotic patients. RESULTS: Migrant patients lived more often with their parental family, were less often enrolled with a referral psychiatrist, presented a lower rate of employment, a lower percentage of alcohol misuse and of suicide attempts. DISCUSSION: Our findings add to the growing body of results showing that more attention needs to be focused on socio-environmental variables in psychosis research. However, several limitations have to be taken into account, particularly with regard to selection biases and age of onset of the psychotic illness. CONCLUSION: Our results are compatible with the hypothesis that unemployment is a contributing factor in the risk for psychosis among migrant groups. Migrants' families are an important keystone in the mental health care process of their sick relatives. Our service models need to be adapted with the aim to make the treatment easier for migrant patients.

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PURPOSE: Clinically, one of the most consistent clinical findings among migrant patients is an increase in the rate of psychosis. The aim of the present study was to confirm this finding in Belgium by comparing second-generation Moroccan migrant patients with Belgian patients, matched for the variables of age and gender. SUBJECTS AND METHOD: We conducted a cross-sectional survey on 272 patients admitted in a psychiatric emergency unit during the year 1998. We used univariate and multivariate analyses to compare the two subgroups. RESULTS: Multivariate analyses showed that migrant patients lived more often with their parental family and that they presented a higher rate of admission for psychotic disorders and a lower rate of employment. DISCUSSION: Our findings add to the growing body of results showing increased incidence of psychosis among immigrants to European countries, but several factors have to be taken into account, particularly with regard to selection biases and differences in help-seeking behaviour and in family perception of the mental illness. CONCLUSION: Our results are compatible with the hypothesis that unemployment is a contributing factor in the risk for psychosis among migrant groups. Further studies would be needed to better explain some of our results, particularly the role played by the families of migrant patients.

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Clinical characteristics and sleep EEG data of 14 unipolar (UPR), 14 bipolar I (BPI) and 14 bipolar II (BPII) patients, matched for age and gender, were investigated during a major depressive episode. We observed a remarkable similarity in the clinical characteristics of the three samples and, concerning sleep EEG data, a trend to a higher percentage of awakening among BPI patients. Pairwise comparisons of the three subgroups showed that only the Newcastle rating scale score reached significant difference between BPI and UPR groups. We observed trends regarding the difference of awakening both between BPI and BPII groups and between BPI and UPR groups, difference of percentage of REM sleep between BPI and BPII groups and difference of Sleep Period Time between BPII and UPR groups. We also observed that the distribution of REM latencies in the BPI subgroup was different from the two others.

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