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P Morault

Publications and source records attributed to P Morault.

4 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1998

Improvement predictors in obsessive-compulsive disorder. An event-related potential study.

The treatment of patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder gives variable and unpredictable results. Numerous clinical features have been investigated as potential predictors of medication response but without consistent results. Preliminary findings have shown that some impairments of pre-treatment event-related potentials (ERPs) could be associated with future treatment outcome (Morault et al., 1997). The present study aimed to confirm the relationships between ERPs and treatment efficacy with larger sample sizes. ERP components were elicited during a verbal auditory 'oddball' paradigm and were recorded in 21 unmedicated patients compared to 21 control subjects. After a pharmacological treatment, the disorder improved in 12 patients. Pre-treatment ERP data were retrospectively compared between treatment responders, non-responders and control subjects. Patients who were to respond favorably to treatment had significantly reduced N2 amplitude and shorter N2 and P3 latencies compared to non-responders and control subjects. In contrast, no difference was shown between non-responders and control subjects. Our findings provide evidence for abnormalities of ERPs which could be considered as potential predictors of treatment response in patients with OCD. These results need to be tested in a prospective protocol.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

[Depressive pseudodementia. Diagnostic importance of quantified EEG].

The accuracy of computerized EEG to discriminate depressive pseudodementia from dementia was evaluated in 12 inpatients with recent cognitive impairments (all with DSM III R diagnosis of dementia). EEG were performed during wash-out period, then all subjects underwent an ECT and/or antidepressant trial. After this trial, clinical improvement was significant for six patients, while the six others remained unimproved. According to these two groups, electrophysiological data were retrospectively compared. Discriminant stepwise analysis exhibited that the combination of two parameters: symmetry of occipital alpha power and frontal alpha/theta ratio, was able to discriminate future responders from non responders patients with a greater accuracy than clinical and classical EEG parameters.

Aged↗
PubMed1994

[Fatigue, drowsiness and sleep].

Vigilance is a critical output of adaptative processes related to sleep/wake continuity and circadian rhythms. Since vigilance is highly stressed in the modern technic society, its sudden failures, expressed as fatigue, drowsiness and/or sleepiness, may be dramatically involved in accident's incidence, as observed in work accidents, manufacturing and transport sectors and private life. There is a detectable human factor involved in 70% of cases. Even if there are multifactorial circumstances, human factor such as fatigue, overwork or errors in decision are generally reported. Two main cases may be described: on one hand sleepiness and fatigue occur as sleep deprivation builds up, with an excessive duration of wakefulness (that suggests that it may be prevented by information and hygienic precautions), on the other hand sleepiness is the expression of a sleep illness or disease (and it must be detected early by a clinical biological survey). Three levels are reviewed and discussed for a comprehensive view of abnormal fatigue and sleepiness: what is the prevalence as evaluated by epidemiologic, biologic and psychologic methods? is there any specificity of cognitive disturbances associated with intrinsic or rhythmic dyssomnic illness and how can one evaluate or measures them? on the basis of some experimental reports in normal subjects by changing wake and sleep schedules it is assumed that the recovery which follows a sleep deprivation may be quite different when there is an early or a late night sleep deprivation. Possibilities for self-sleep training are discussed. The actual great interest in abnormal sleepiness is supported by its human and socio-economic consequences. If new pharmacological or physiological treatments have recently be suggested, information and cooperation are required in healthy subjects and in patients. Self-detection in the course of sleepiness is a critical factor: it may be learned and taught by medical preventive projects.

Accidents, Traffic↗