English
Neuropsychiatry
You are not alone in dealing with your mental health problems
According to the WHO, 1 in 4 people is affected by a mental disorder in the course of his or her life(5)
Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a chronic and severe mental disorder affecting more than 23 million people worldwide(1).
Schizophrenia is a psychosis, a type of mental illness characterized by distortions in thinking, perception, emotions, language, sense of self and behavior.
Common experiences include:
- Hallucination: hearing, seeing or feeling things that are not there.
- Delusion: fixed false beliefs or suspicions not shared by others in the person’s culture and that are firmly held even when there is evidence to the contrary.
- Abnormal Behavior: disorganized behavior such as wandering aimlessly, mumbling or laughing to self, strange appearance, self-neglect or appearing unkempt.
- Disorganized speech; incoherent or irrelevant speech.
- Disturbances of emotions: marked apathy or disconnect between reported emotion and what is observed such as facial expression or body language(1).
Schizophrenia is associated with a severe disability and can affect educational and vocational outcomes(1).
Schizophrenia can be effectively treated with medication and psychosocial support(1).
Bipolar Disorders
Bipolar disorder, or manic-depressive episode, is a chronic mental illness responsible for mood disorders, most often alternating between states of exaltation and depression(2).
Bipolar disorder is characterized by reccurent mood disorders(2). This chronic mental illness was formely called manic-depressive psychosis(2).
In sick people, mood typically oscillates between:
- Manic episodes : Exaltation phases, where patients are extremely active, even agitated and sometimes feel euphoric and exalted.
- Depressive episodes : Mood decline phases, following a manic phase, where patients may experience great sadness and lose all desire for activity(2).
- The remission intervals : Between these manic and depressive episodes, mood can return to normal, or almost normal(2).
Anxiety disorders
Anxiety is a feeling of discomfort, such as worry or fear, that may be mild or severe but that lasts over time(3).
If a transient fear is a normal reaction to a stressful situation (like taking an exam, a job interview…), anxiety is an excessive but transient reaction to a situation felt to be a threat(3).
Anxiety disorders are different from transient fear and anxiety, they are repetitive, persist over time, occur unrelated to a real danger or threat and create suffering in those affected(3).
Chronic depression
It is very important to detect a first episode of depression early because the treatment can then quickly reduce the symptoms. Depression treated late can lead to complications(4).
Depression is characterized by an association of variable symptoms from one to another(4).
These symptoms, that can be severe, are present almost every day for at least two weeks. They are a source of distress and have a professional, social and family impact. This is called a characterized depressive episode and not a simple “depression” or a transient depressive reaction(4).
Depression can affect the body and be responsible for multiple pains, sexual disturbances, a slowdown in activity or, on the contrary, agitation(4).
The depressed person is not always aware of his disease, and it is the entourage or the doctor during a consultation who evoke the diagnosis of depressive episode(4).
1. ORGANISATION MONDIALE DE LA SANTE : La schizophrénie (accessed 2022-01-31)
2. AMELI: Les troubles bipolaires (accessed 2022-01-31)
3. AMELI: les troubles anxieux (accessed 2022-01-31)
4. AMELI : Dépression (troubles dépressifs) (accessed 2022-01-31)
5. WHO News release: The World Health Report 2001: Mental Disorders affect one in four people – 28 September 2001 (accesses 2024-09-12)
JUV-FRA-202408-0211, 09/2024