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Dominique Barbier

Publications and source records attributed to Dominique Barbier.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Sewage sludge or cattle slurry as pasture fertilisers: comparative cysticercosis and trichostrongylosis risk for grazing cattle.

Sewage sludge and slurry are used as fertilisers on pastures grazed by ruminants. The former may be a source of Taenia saginata, which causes cysticercosis in cattle and taeniosis in man. The latter is a source of digestive tract-strongyles, a major helminth infection in cattle. The interest of application on pastures of these two biowastes is environmental (optimal recycling of biowastes) and agronomic (fertilisation). The parasitic risk and the fertilisation value of such applications on pastures were evaluated during one grazing season. Liquid sewage sludge did induce higher herbage biomass, which corresponded to higher liveweight gains during the first 2 months of grazing, compared to slurry spread pastures and calves grazing them. The sludge group of calves did not acquire live cysticerci and thus the risk was nil under the conditions of the study (delay of 6 weeks between application and grazing). The slurry group of calves did become lightly infected with digestive-tract strongyles, mostly Ostertagia ostertagi. Under the conditions of this experiment, a 6-week delay between application and grazing strongly reduced the risk of infection: it renders compatible the agronomic use and requirements of public or animal health.

Animal Feed↗

[The burnout syndrome of the caregiver].

SLAVES TO THEIR WORK: The Anglo-Saxons were the first to evoke the "burn out syndrome" although the Canadians prefer to use "burning" in order to emphasize these situations in which the person is as it were literally "consumed by his/her work". The burn-out syndrome more specifically involves all those who have chosen to devote their lives to others. This is the case notably with health care workers because they are in direct contact with suffering, poverty, hardship, disease and death. THE ENHANCING FACTORS: There is no particular pre-morbid personality. Nevertheless, various factors can be at the origin of a burn out syndrome: subconscious motivations in the choice of the profession, capacity to adapt to hardship at work, excessive idealization of the profession, lack of recognition and the absence of any possibility of promotion. INSTALLATION IN 4 STAGES: The onset of an occupational burn out syndrome is usually insidious. Schematically, the first stage is idealistic enthusiasm. Then a helpless stagnation period follows with progressive disinterest, followed by a phase of frustration, before the onset of an apathetic disenchantment with search for a form of security. VARIOUS POINTS IN COMMON WITH DEPRESSION: A range of effects exist: sleep and digestive disorders, reduced performance, progressive feeling of exhaustion with impact on friends and relatives, irritability towards others, absence of dialogue, and a feeling of "emptiness". THREE ELEMENTS TO THERAPEUTIC POSSIBILITIES: The first consists in improving work conditions by changing the environment; the second consists in improving communications and enhancing the end to isolation and the third consists in changing the employee's private life. Such as reorganizing the person's life so that they can disconnect and develop other interest than through their work.

Burnout, Professional↗

[The problematics of depression].

Doubt, one of the fundamental symptoms of depression. Patients frequently believe they're incurable. They are persuaded that nothing can be done for them. Most of the time, when they are told, they do not accept that they are going through a crisis, a critical period in life. The ever repeated question is: "What's the use?" Which shows to what extent the person is depressed and disillusioned. For them there is nothing that can be of any use. A frequent problem. The Yearly prevalence of phases of major depression in the general population in France is of around 10% and throughout life of more than 10% in men and 20% in women. In France the estimation is that more than one out of 7 inhabitants is depressed. The role of the general practitioner. The physician must help those who surround the depressed patient, but it is often necessary that the practitioner refer to a consulting specialist who will specify what type of depression the patient is suffering from, eventually make an assessment (using specific scales) of the intensity of the episode, and indicate which type of antidepressor is best adapted, the side effects that should be monitored, the associations to be avoided, and any control biological assays to be foreseen. The role of the specialist. In parallel, the specialist will schedule a psychotherapy, either maintenance or more structured (in such a way that the patients, if they wish, can work on the mechanisms that provoked the depression and hence protect themselves against any eventual relapse). The interest of co-therapies. It can be interesting that the general practitioners and specialists collaborate in the necessity for hospitalisation or not (with patient's consent or not), monitoring of a suicide risk, or the need to change treatment. The sharing of the tasks is always very positive for the patients. The patients, as those who surround them, are reassured by the fact that the family doctor and a specialist are collaborating in order to optimise treatment as rapidly as possible. The organisation of such co-therapies requires that the general practitioner also have good knowledge of the various types of psychotherapy available for the patient.

Antidepressive Agents↗

Influence of chronic hypoxemia on peripheral muscle function and oxidative stress in humans.

Transient re-oxygenation of humans suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) allows the assessment of the consequences of chronic hypoxemia on peripheral muscle and metabolism apart from the effects of de-conditioning. The subjects performed maximal voluntary contractions (MVC) of flexor digitorum and vastus lateralis muscles and sustained infra-maximal contractions. COPD patients repeated the whole challenge during a 50-min oxygen breathing period and after recovery to baseline hypoxemia. We measured the compound evoked muscle mass action potential (M-wave) and the medium frequency (MF) of surface electromyography (EMG) power spectrum. Blood lactate (LA) and potassium (K+), erythrocyte-reduced glutathione (GSH), and plasma thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) were also measured. Compared with a control group, COPD patients had lower MVCs, an attenuated decrease in MF during exercise, lower resting level of GSH, no posthandgrip TBARS increase and no GSH consumption. Reoxygenation (1) increased MVCs, (2) accentuated the MF decline and (3) elicited a posthandgrip TBARS increase and GSH consumption. Thus, we conclude that chronic hypoxemia exerts specific muscular effects: a reduced force production, an attenuated 'muscle wisdom', and the suppression of the exercise oxidative stress.

Aged↗

Right-to-left atrial shunt without pulmonary artery hypertension.

A 70-year-old woman without any history of pulmonary or cardiac disease developed breathlessness with severe arterial hypoxemia. Cardiac ultrasound examination and spirometry were normal. Cardiac catheterization and intravenous microbubble injection demonstrated an interatrial right-to-left shunt. The defect was closed surgically, and the patient recovered immediately. On surgery, the aorta was elongated, inducing an angulation of the interatrial septum and leading to the atrial septal defect just above the inferior vena cava.

Acute Disease↗

The use of urban sewage sludge on pastures: the cysticercosis threat.

Urban sewage production is increasing and its agronomical use as a fertiliser has been advocated. Considerable defiance is prevalent in consumers and among farmers on the use of such fertilisers due to unknown pathological or environmental risks. The aim of the present review was to consider which pathological risk is major. Cysticercosis due to Taenia saginata appears to be one of the major pathological threats when sewage sludge is used to fertilise cattle pastures in temperate areas. The situation is different in Africa (Taenia solium and T. saginata are both highly prevalent) and Asia (Taeniasaginata-like are prevalent). The processing of sludge and the delay between its application onto a pasture and grazing are probably major risk factors. Little data are available on the influence of processing, delay between processing and the use of sludge on the pathogenic risk. Producers and consumers will be more confident on the use of sludge if objective data are gained on risk. Most of the cases of cysticercosis (North America, United-Kingdom, Germany or Denmark) are related to poor human hygiene or accidental overflooding of sewage plants onto pastures. The standard application of sludge on pastures is apparently at low risk. This low risk does not mean that surveillance should cease since outbreaks of cysticercosis have been reported. Future investigations should concentrate on the most sustainable means of reducing risk (length of storage before use, composting, other treatments).

Animals↗