Gender Differences in Interpersonal Problems of Alcohol-Dependent Patients and Healthy Controls

Alcohol dependence is a heavy burden on patients, their families, and society. Epidemiological studies indicate that alcohol dependence will affect many individuals at some time in their lives, with men affected more frequently than women. Since alcohol-dependent patients often exhibit a lack of social skills and suffer from interpersonal problems, the aim of this study is to elucidate whether men and women experience the same interpersonal problems. Eighty-five alcohol-dependent patients (48 men; 37 women) after detoxification and 62 healthy controls (35 men; 27 women) were recruited. Interpersonal problems were measured with the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems (IIP-64). Additionally, alcohol-dependent patients were interviewed with the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) and were subtyped according to Lesch’s Alcohol Typology (LAT). There were no significant gender differences in the AUDIT and LAT between alcohol-dependent men and women. Interpersonal problems of alcohol-dependent men differed significantly in one out of eight dimensions from controls; alcohol-dependent men perceive themselves as colder than male controls. Alcohol-dependent women differed in four out of eight interpersonal dimensions from female controls. Alcohol-dependent women rated themselves as significantly more vindictive, more introverted, more overly accommodating and more intrusive than female controls. Results suggest that alcohol-dependent men and women suffer from different interpersonal problems and furthermore alcohol-dependent women perceive more interpersonal problems, whereas the severity of alcohol dependence did not differ between the groups. Our findings indicate that alcohol-dependent women may profit more from a gender-specific treatment approach aimed at improving treatment outcome than alcohol-dependent men

There is no age limit for methadone: a retrospective cohort study

BACKGROUND: Data from the US indicates that methadone-maintained populations are aging, with an increase of patients aged 50 or older. Data from European methadone populations is sparse. This retrospective cohort study sought to evaluate the age trends and related developments in the methadone population of Basel-City, Switzerland. METHODS: The study included methadone patients between April 1, 1995 and March 31, 2003. Anonymized data was taken from the methadone register of Basel-City. For analysis of age distributions, patient samples were split into four age categories from '20-29 years' to '50 years and over'. Cross-sectional comparisons were performed using patient samples of 1996 and 2003. RESULTS: Analysis showed a significant increase in older patients between 1996 and 2003 (p < 0.001). During that period, the percentage of patients aged 50 and over rose almost tenfold, while the proportion of patients aged under 30 dropped significantly from 52.8% to 12.3%. The average methadone dose (p < 0.001) and the 1-year retention rate (p < 0.001) also increased significantly. CONCLUSIONS: Findings point to clear trends in aging of methadone patients in Basel-City which are comparable, although less pronounced, to developments among US methadone populations. Many unanswered questions on medical, psychosocial and health economic consequences remain as the needs of older patients have not yet been evaluated extensively. However, older methadone patients, just as any other patients, should be accorded treatment appropriate to their medical condition and needs. Particular attention should be paid to adequate solutions for persons in need of care

Potential of Core-Collapse Supernova Neutrino Detection at JUNO

JUNO is an underground neutrino observatory under construction in Jiangmen, China. It uses 20kton liquid scintillator as target, which enables it to detect supernova burst neutrinos of a large statistics for the next galactic core-collapse supernova (CCSN) and also pre-supernova neutrinos from the nearby CCSN progenitors. All flavors of supernova burst neutrinos can be detected by JUNO via several interaction channels, including inverse beta decay, elastic scattering on electron and proton, interactions on C12 nuclei, etc. This retains the possibility for JUNO to reconstruct the energy spectra of supernova burst neutrinos of all flavors. The real time monitoring systems based on FPGA and DAQ are under development in JUNO, which allow prompt alert and trigger-less data acquisition of CCSN events. The alert performances of both monitoring systems have been thoroughly studied using simulations. Moreover, once a CCSN is tagged, the system can give fast characterizations, such as directionality and light curve

Detection of the Diffuse Supernova Neutrino Background with JUNO

As an underground multi-purpose neutrino detector with 20 kton liquid scintillator, Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO) is competitive with and complementary to the water-Cherenkov detectors on the search for the diffuse supernova neutrino background (DSNB). Typical supernova models predict 2-4 events per year within the optimal observation window in the JUNO detector. The dominant background is from the neutral-current (NC) interaction of atmospheric neutrinos with 12C nuclei, which surpasses the DSNB by more than one order of magnitude. We evaluated the systematic uncertainty of NC background from the spread of a variety of data-driven models and further developed a method to determine NC background within 15\% with {\it{in}} {\it{situ}} measurements after ten years of running. Besides, the NC-like backgrounds can be effectively suppressed by the intrinsic pulse-shape discrimination (PSD) capabilities of liquid scintillators. In this talk, I will present in detail the improvements on NC background uncertainty evaluation, PSD discriminator development, and finally, the potential of DSNB sensitivity in JUNO

Methadone treatment for opiate dependent patients in general practice and specialist clinic settings : outcomes at one-year follow-up

Few studies have investigated methadone maintenance treatment of opiate dependent patients in primary health care settings compared to specialist clinic settings. Using a prospective cohort design, the study investigated outcomes at one year for 660 patients treated by general practitioners (n = 70) or by drug clinics (n = 3) at sites across Basel, Switzerland. The main treatment outcome measures were: retention in treatment, attendance of consultations, prescribed methadone doses, and illicit drug use over time. Mean daily methadone dose for patients in general practice (GP) was 69.3 mg (SD = 44.7) and for patients in specialized clinics 76.7 mg (SD = 48.4). The overall one-year retention in treatment was 74% (GP, 75.6%; clinics, 72.2%). The proportion of reported concomitant heroin use was significantly lower in patients treated by GPs compared to the clinic sample (49% versus 72%; P < 0.0001), as well as the proportion of reported concomitant cocaine use (GP, 24%; clinics, 41%; P = 0.001). The same accounts for reported intravenous drug use (GP, 40% versus 58%; P < 0.0001). The concomitant use of benzodiazepines and alcohol did not differ between groups. Reductions in concomitant heroin and cocaine use were found in both groups at follow-up, by comparing admission, with average-stay and long-term samples. Patients in GP settings attended an average of 5.14 out of 6.19 scheduled consultations, patients in specialist clinic settings an average of 6.8 out of 7.86 scheduled consultations in a six-month period. The proportion of takehome medication for both groups was 69%. Comparing treatment outcome with the amount of consultations in both treatment settings, patients with a higher rate of consultations (4 to 7) had a significantly better retention rate in both groups (P = 0.002; P< 0.0001) compared to patients with a low rate of consultations (0 to 3). Results show substantial reductions in concomitant heroin use, among ‘real world’ patients treated in GP and in clinic settings, which were sustained at one-year followup. Our results support the success of methadone maintenance provided by primary care physicians’ offices. Furthermore, our results provide evidence, that GPs treat an equal proportion of ‘unstable patients’ (25%) as do the clinics, indicating the knowledge and long clinical experience of this sample of GPs. However, providing better professional support, competence training and financial remains a goal for future developments in the primary health care field

Vies de Gilles de Rais

Cette thèse vise à rendre compte de la postérité littéraire de Gilles de Rais, personnage historique qui vécut dans la France du XVe siècle. Compagnon de Jeanne d'Arc, il fut assimilé à Barbe-Bleue. Il s'agit ici de suivre le devenir littéraire de cette figure du XVe siècle à nos jours afin de déterminer le statut littéraire du maréchal de Charles VII. Ce faisant, cette étude envisage le problème du rapport entre Histoire et littérature ainsi que les conditions d'élaboration d'une figure héroïque, voire d'un mythe littéraireThis work tries to understand the literary becoming of Gilles de Rais, historical character who lived in France during the Fifteenth Century. Comrade-in-arms to Joan of Arc, he was assimilated to Bluebeard. It is about to following Gilles's progress in literature from the Fifteenth Century until these days to determinate what kind of character he really was. That's why the link between History and literature is considered as well as the process, which enables of a hero, or even a literary mythLILLE3-BU (590092101) / SudocSudocFranceF

Avant-Propos : Pratiques et l'écriture

Plane Sylvie, Petitjean André, Halté Jean-François. Avant-Propos : Pratiques et l'écriture. In: Pratiques : linguistique, littérature, didactique, n°115-116, 2002. Avant-Propos : Pratiques et l'écriture. pp. 3-6