Christine Cuervo-Lombard

Autobiographical memory of adolescence and early adulthood events: An investigation in schizophrenia

The reminiscence bump corresponds to a marked increase in autobiographical memories of events that occurred when normal people were aged 10 to 30 years, a critical period for the formation of identity. The reminiscence bump was studied in 27 patients diagnosed with schizophrenia and 27 control participants. They were asked to recall 20 specific autobiographical events that had occurred during their lifetime and to indicate the subjective states of awareness associated with the recalled memories using the Remember/Know procedure. Finally, participants were asked to state whether recalled memories related to private or public events. Patients diagnosed with schizophrenia recalled less specific memories than controls and exhibited an earlier reminiscence bump. They recalled more public, and less private events than controls, and they gave fewer Remember responses. The reminiscence bump peaked in the 16 to 25-year period for patients and the 21 to 25-year period for controls. These findings indicate that patients diagnosed with schizophrenia exhibit an early and abnormal reminiscence bump, with an impairment of conscious recollection associated with memories highly relevant to personal identity. They suggest that schizophrenia is associated with an impairment of autobiographical memories of events that had occurred during the last stage of personal identity development.

Autonoetic awareness associated with the projection of the self into the future: An investigation in schizophrenia

Autonoetic awareness associated with the projection of the self into the future was assessed in patients with schizophrenia using an experiential approach. Patients anticipated fewer specific future events than controls, and their ability to pre-experience future events was impaired, indicating that autonoetic awareness for the future is impaired in schizophrenia.

Executive functions in adult offspring of alcohol-dependent probands: toward a cognitive endophenotype?

BACKGROUND Executive function (EF) impairment in alcohol dependence (AD) has been related to the toxic effects of alcohol on frontal lobes. However, this impairment could be partially present before the onset of the disease and might constitute a vulnerability factor. Although a considerable body of research has investigated executive functioning among AD patients, much less attention has been directed toward high-risk individuals. Most studies were carried out among children or adolescents, and very few were conducted in adults. The aim of this study was to examine EF in a group of adult offspring of AD individuals. METHODS One hundred and fifty-five nonalcoholic adults with (family history positive [FHP]) or without (family history negative [FHN]) family history of AD were included in the study. All participants were screened for past and current psychiatric diagnoses, and alcohol, tobacco, and other substance use. They were compared on self-rated impulsiveness using the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale-11 (BIS-11) and EF using a neuropsychological test battery. RESULTS Group comparison revealed that FHP participants had significantly higher BIS-11 scores than the FHN participants, while neuropsychological examination revealed lower EF scores for FHP participants. Hierarchical regression analysis revealed that the number of AD family members was a predictor of EF results, whereas impulsiveness was not. CONCLUSIONS Nonalcoholic adult offspring of AD individuals showed increased impulsiveness and decreased EF, suggesting weakness of 2 distinct neurobehavioral decision systems. Findings support evidence that EF weaknesses may qualify as a suitable endophenotype candidate for AD.

Distorted perception of the subjective temporal distance of autobiographical events in patients with schizophrenia

Disturbances of perception of subjective time have been described in schizophrenia but have not been experimentally studied until now. We investigated how patients with schizophrenia estimate the subjective temporal distance (TD) of past personal events, i.e. how these events are perceived as subjectively close or distant in time. Twenty-five patients with schizophrenia and 25 control participants recalled 24 autobiographical memories from four different life periods. They estimated the subjective TD and rated the amount of detail of each memory. Results showed that patients with schizophrenia had a distorted perception of subjective TD. Their memories were significantly less detailed than those of controls and, unlike control participants, the amount of memory detail was not significantly correlated with subjective TD. Poor access to memory detail may account for distortions of perception of subjective time in patients with schizophrenia.

Self-disorders in individuals with attenuated psychotic symptoms: Contribution of a dysfunction of autobiographical memory

Patients with schizophrenia and people with subclinical psychotic symptoms have difficulties getting a clear and stable representation of their self. The cognitive mechanisms involved in this reduced clarity of self-concept remain poorly understood. The present study examined whether an altered way of thinking or reasoning about ones past may account for the reduced clarity of self-concept in individuals with attenuated psychotic symptoms (APS). An online study comprising 667 participants examined the capacity to give a meaning to past events and to scrutinize autobiographical memory to better understand him/herself. Our results showed that in this sample, individuals with APS (n=49) have a lower clarity of self-concept and a higher tendency to scrutinize autobiographical memory than controls subjects (n=147). A mediation analysis performed on the full sample revealed that the relation between APS and clarity of self-concept was mediated by a tendency to scrutinize autobiographical memory. Our results suggest that the weakness of self-concept, which increases with the intensity of psychotic symptoms, may be related to an altered function of autobiographical memory, so that examining past events may fail to sustain a stable and clear representation of the self when psychotic symptoms increase.

Self-defining memories in recently detoxified alcohol-dependent patients

Patients with alcohol dependence have been shown to be impaired in recalling specific autobiographical events, yet little is known on how changes in the memory of these events may impact their self-representation. In this study, we examined Self-Defining Memories (SDMs), a specific type of autobiographical memory that plays a key role in the construction of personal identity, in 25 patients with alcohol dependence, abstinent from alcohol from 10 days to 6 months, compared to 28 control subjects. We observed that SDMs in patients were significantly less specific and included more reference to alcohol than those of controls. Patients also reported more SDMs with negative emotional valence and higher emotional intensity. These results suggest that recently abstinent alcohol-dependent patients may be prone to define themselves by negative events referring to alcohol consumption, which may contribute to an unfavorable perception of their self and subsequently of their ability to remain abstinent. These findings should be taken into account to optimize psychological approaches in the treatment of alcohol-dependence.

Mental healthcare in older adults with schizophrenia: results from 118 French public psychiatric departments.

The increased life expectancy in people with severe and persistent psychiatric illness, such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, has been predicted to substantially affect mental healthcare system (Bartels et al., 2002) that must adapt to meet the needs of older adults (Jeste et al., 1999). Development of specialized geriatric psychiatry services is thus needed. In France, public mental health departments are organized into “sectors,” i.e. catchment areas defining mutually independent geographical areas, each of them comprising a mean population of 72,000 inhabitants. Catchment area healthcare teams cover all levels of service provision, i.e. primary, secondary, and tertiary care, and are responsible for the provision of healthcare services for all the inhabitants of the areas concerned. Apart from the planning and budgeting advantages of this method of organizing service, this approach leads to enhanced likelihood of providing continuity of care. However, it also implies that each sector healthcare team have the knowledge and the means required to adequately manage all mental disorders, limiting thus the development of services specialized in the care of specific disorders and in geriatric psychiatry (Verdoux and Tignol, 2003). In this report, we sought to give an overview on the global provision of psychiatric care for older adults in France and examine the proportion of older patients with schizophrenia among psychiatric patients followed up in France between 2008 and 2009. Data were collected in 118 public-sector psychiatric departments between 2008 and 2009. Each department was questioned about the total number of patients aged over 18 years old they had followed up during this period, their age, and the number of patients with an International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision (ICD10) diagnosis of schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder (F20–F25). Lastly, all departments were asked whether they offer specialized services for elderly patients. Study results indicate that one out of five (n = 376±303; 21%) patients was aged 60 years or older. Patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia represented nearly 13% (n = 236±147) of the total number of patients, while the percentage of patients with schizophrenia aged 60 years and older was 1.5% (n = 26±15) of the total number of patients. More than one out of ten patients with schizophrenia was aged 60 years and older (11.1%). Less than four out of ten mental health departments (39.8%) provided specialized services for elderly patients. In these departments, 76% reported ambulatory care services, 42% consultation-liaison, 36% full-time hospitalization with an average of five beds dedicated to the elderly, and 19% day hospitalization. Mental health in older people has become a major issue in the European Union (EU) (Jané-Llopis and Gabilondo, 2008). The EU stresses the importance of promoting autonomy and independence for older people with mental health diseases by privileging community-based care and maintaining elderly subjects in their own environment. However, our results, in line with those of a recent study (Tucker et al., 2007), suggest that despite substantial improvements during the last decades, the development of mental health departments offering specialized services for older patients is insufficient to meet the impending crisis in geriatric mental health. Mental healthcare for older adults with mental illness, and particularly those with schizophrenia, needs to be accessible, affordable, culturally appropriate, and integrated into a comprehensive system of mental health services that ensures continuity and coordination of care. Despite evidence for the efficacy of a variety of interventions for mental disorders in the elderly, implementation of these interventions in usual care settings remains limited (Bartels et al., 2002). The main objectives for the next few years are to ensure equitable access to appropriate assessment and treatment of mental disorders in older individuals, develop the interface between specialist mental health services and generic services caring for older people, and provide adequate training to young psychiatrists and mental health staff. In France, the National Health Strategy plan recently presented by the government seeks to diminish care provision disparities, with a particular focus on the older population. In conclusion, although elderly patients represent one out of five psychiatric patients in France, only one-third of French public mental health departments provide services specialized in geriatric psychiatry. Given the rapid growth of