@article{pmid40239126,

title = {The Complex Journey of Women in Perinatal Psychiatric Care: Susceptibility to Illness Onset, Comorbidity and Clinical Trajectories: Le parcours complexe des femmes en psychiatrie périnatale : vulnérabilité, comorbidités et trajectoires cliniques},

author = {Alexandra Painchaud and Marie-Josée Poulin and Célia Matte-Gagné and Chantal Mérette},

doi = {10.1177/07067437251328347},

issn = {1497-0015},

year  = {2025},

date = {2025-06-01},

journal = {Can J Psychiatry},

volume = {70},

number = {6},

pages = {499--510},

abstract = {BackgroundMore than one in five women deal with a psychiatric disorder during the perinatal period. Whereas perinatal depression is well documented, there is still little research on the full range of perinatal psychiatric disorders and their clinical evolution across this whole period. The present study investigated the susceptibility to psychiatric illness during pregnancy and up to one year postpartum. We aimed to identify the most frequent disorders and comorbidities arising in each perinatal period. We outlined the clinical trajectories of these disorders in terms of evolution across past history, pregnancy and postpartum.MethodThrough a retrospective longitudinal design, data were collected in 2019-2020 from the medical records of the cohort of 964 women who required care in a tertiary perinatal psychiatry clinic located in Quebec City (Canada) between 2004 and 2020. Incidence rates of the full range of psychiatric disorders were estimated per period and their evolution across time identified clinical trajectories.ResultsDuring pregnancy, 34 different disorders were newly diagnosed with incidence rates ranging from 0.1% to 15.5% (45.6% of women having had at least one disorder diagnosed during pregnancy) whereas, during postpartum, 36 disorders were newly diagnosed with incidence rates ranging from 0.1% to 31.0% (67.5% of women having had at least one disorder diagnosed during postpartum). For most disorders, rates were significantly higher in postpartum than in pregnancy. A woman could develop multiple disorders during a given perinatal period: this comorbidity involved various combinations of diagnoses in 28% of women during pregnancy and 38% during postpartum. We outlined 52 different clinical trajectories from past history to postpartum, underlining the heterogeneity of the perinatal course.ConclusionsPregnancy is a susceptible period for women with past psychiatric histories whereas postpartum could trigger a new illness in women without a past history or pregnancy-onset psychiatric disorder.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{pmid38443322,

title = {Behavioural therapy for shift work disorder improves shift workers' sleep, sleepiness and mental health: A pilot randomised control trial},

author = {Annie Vallières and Alric Pappathomas and Séverine de Billy Garnier and Chantal Mérette and Julie Carrier and Tyna Paquette and Célyne H Bastien},

doi = {10.1111/jsr.14162},

issn = {1365-2869},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-12-01},

journal = {J Sleep Res},

volume = {33},

number = {6},

pages = {e14162},

abstract = {The present study evaluates the efficacy of behavioural therapy adapted for shift work disorder with a randomised control design in a healthcare population. Forty-three night shift workers (m. age: 34 years; 77% women) experiencing shift work disorder were randomised to either the behavioural therapy for shift work disorder (BT-SWD) or a waiting-list control group offered after the waiting period. Participants completed questionnaires on insomnia, sleepiness and mental health pre- and post-treatment, pre- and post-waiting, and at follow-up, and a sleep diary. As night shift workers alternate between sleeping during the day after their night shifts and transitioning to nighttime sleep on days off, insomnia severity and sleep variables were analysed for daytime and nighttime sleep. The BT-SWD involved sleep restriction therapy, stimulus control and fixed sleep periods in the dark. Statistical analyses were performed under intent-to-treat and per-protocol approaches. Repeated-measures two-way ANCOVA analysis, controlling for age, sex and pre-treatment daytime total sleep time, was performed with Bonferroni corrections, and between-group effect sizes computed. Fourteen participants dropped out after randomisation. Under the intent-to-treat analysis, BT-SWD participants had a significant greater decrease in daytime insomnia severity and an increase in daytime total sleep time at post-treatment than the control group, with large between-group effect sizes (-1.25 and 0.89). These corresponding results were also significant with large effect sizes under the per-protocol analysis. Sleepiness, anxiety and depression levels improved at post-treatment and maintained at follow-up when the BT-SWD treated controls were added to the BT-SWD group. The behavioural therapy for shift work disorder can be used to improve the sleep and mental health of healthcare night workers.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{pmid37722293,

title = {Developmental trajectories of speech and language in neglected children aged 3 to 5 years: Results of the ELLAN study},

author = {Audette Sylvestre and Mélissa Di Sante and Catherine Julien and Caroline Bouchard and Chantal Mérette},

doi = {10.1016/j.chiabu.2023.106448},

issn = {1873-7757},

year  = {2023},

date = {2023-12-01},

journal = {Child Abuse Negl},

volume = {146},

pages = {106448},

abstract = {BACKGROUND: Neglected children are at high risk for significant difficulties in speech and language development. Because no longitudinal study has been conducted to date, the dynamic description of development during the preschool period is unknown.nnOBJECTIVES: Establish the developmental trajectories of speech sounds, receptive and expressive vocabulary, and morphosyntax among neglected children during the preschool years and compare them with those of non-neglected children.nnPARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: Participants are 69 neglected children and 99 same age non-neglected peers (37 and 46 males respectively) recruited at 36 months of age. Data were collected at home.nnMETHODS: Data were collected at six-month intervals between the ages of 3 and 5.5 years using psychometrically robust tools. Neglected and control groups were compared according to age using repeated measures ANOVAs on all variables. A discrete mixture model for clustering longitudinal data was used for testing the heterogeneity of the language trajectories among neglected children.nnRESULTS: The language development of the neglected children as a whole group is lower than that of the control group for all variables. Two subgroups are identified within the neglected group: one with a developmental trajectory similar to that of the non-neglected children, and another whose trajectory is far below that of the control group. The effect sizes of these differences vary between 1.4 and 3 standard deviations under the mean.nnCONCLUSIONS: A large proportion of neglected children present significant speech and language difficulties from the age of 3, but some of them catch up and develop similarly to non-neglected children.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{pmid37290571,

title = {Evaluation of electroretinography (ERG) parameters as a biomarker for ADHD},

author = {Marc-André Dubois and Charles-Antoine Pelletier and Chantal Mérette and Valérie Jomphe and Rose Turgeon and Richard E Bélanger and Simon Grondin and Marc Hébert},

doi = {10.1016/j.pnpbp.2023.110807},

issn = {1878-4216},

year  = {2023},

date = {2023-12-01},

journal = {Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry},

volume = {127},

pages = {110807},

abstract = {BACKGROUND: The retina is recognized as an accessible part of the brain due to their common embryonic origin. The electroretinogram (ERG) has proven to be a valuable tool for detecting schizophrenia and bipolarity. We therefore investigated its ability to detect ADHD.nnMETHODS: The cone and rod luminance response functions of the ERG were recorded in 26 ADHD subjects (17 women and 9 men) and 25 controls (16 women and 9 men).nnRESULTS: No significant differences were found between the mixed groups, but sexual dysmorphia was observed in the significant results. In males, a significant prolonged cone a-wave latency was observed in the ADHD group. In females, we observed a significant decrease in the cone a- and b-wave amplitudes and a trend for a prolonged cone b-wave latency as well as a higher scotopic mixed rod-cone a-wave in the ADHD group.nnCONCLUSION: The data obtained in this study show the potential of the ERG to detect ADHD, warranting further large-scale studies.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{pmid36163429,

title = {The 5-year longitudinal diagnostic profile and health services utilization of patients treated with electroconvulsive therapy in Quebec: a population-based study},

author = {Simon Lafrenière and Fatemeh Gholi-Zadeh-Kharrat and Caroline Sirois and Victoria Massamba and Louis Rochette and Camille Brousseau-Paradis and Simon Patry and Christian Gagné and Morgane Lemasson and Geneviève Gariépy and Chantal Mérette and Elham Rahme and Alain Lesage},

doi = {10.1007/s00127-022-02369-w},

issn = {1433-9285},

year  = {2023},

date = {2023-04-01},

journal = {Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol},

volume = {58},

number = {4},

pages = {629--639},

abstract = {PURPOSE: Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is effective for treating several psychiatric disorders. However, only a minority of patients are treated with ECT. It is of primary importance to characterize their profile for epidemiological purposes and to inform clinical practice. We aimed to characterize the longitudinal profile of psychopathology and services utilization of patients first treated with ECT.nnMETHODS: We conducted a population-based comparative study using data from a national administrative database in Quebec. Patients who received a first ECT between 2002 and 2016 were compared to controls who were hospitalized in psychiatry but did not receive ECT. We performed descriptive analyses to compare psychiatric diagnoses, domains of psychopathology (internalizing, externalizing and thought/psychotic disorders), medical services and medication use in the 5 years prior to the ECT or hospitalization.nnRESULTS: 5 080 ECT patients were compared with 179 594 controls. Depressive, anxiety, bipolar and psychotic disorders were more frequent in the ECT group. 96.2% of ECT patients had been diagnosed with depression and 53.8% with a primary psychotic disorder. In the ECT group, 1.0% had been diagnosed exclusively with depression and 47.0% had disorders from that belong to all three domains of psychopathology. Having both internalizing and thought/psychotic disorders was associated with an increased likelihood of receiving ECT vs having internalizing disorders alone (unadjusted OR = 2.93; 95% CI = 2.63, 3.26). All indicators of mental health services utilization showed higher use among ECT patients.nnCONCLUSION: Our results provide robust evidence of complex longitudinal psychopathology and extensive services utilization among ECT patients.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{pmid36401192,

title = {Developing a clinical decision tool based on electroretinogram to monitor the risk of severe mental illness},

author = {Rossana Peredo and Marc Hébert and Chantal Mérette},

doi = {10.1186/s12888-022-04375-3},

issn = {1471-244X},

year  = {2022},

date = {2022-11-01},

journal = {BMC Psychiatry},

volume = {22},

number = {1},

pages = {718},

abstract = {BACKGROUND: We have shown that electroretinograms can discriminate between patients with severe mental illness (SMI) and healthy controls in previous studies. We now intend to enhance the development and clinical utility of ERG as a biological tool to monitor the risk of SMI.nnMETHODOLOGY: A sample of 301 SMI patients (bipolar disorder or schizophrenia) and 200 controls was first split into a training (N = 401) and testing dataset (N = 100). A logistic regression using ERG was modeled in the training data, while external validation and discriminative ability were assessed in the testing data. A decision curve analysis was used to test clinical usefulness. Moreover, the identification of thresholds of uncertainty based on the two-graph ROC and the interval of uncertainty was used to enhance prediction.nnRESULTS: The discriminative assessment of the ERG showed very high sensitivity (91%) and specificity (89%) after considering uncertainty levels. Furthermore, for prediction probabilities ranging from 0.14 to 0.95 in the testing data, the net benefit of using our ERG model to decide whether to intervene or not exceeded that of never or always intervening.nnCONCLUSION: The ERG predicted SMI risk with a high level of accuracy when uncertainty was accounted for. This study further supports the potential of ERG to become a useful clinical decision tool to decide the course of action for subjects at risk of SMI. However, further investigation is still needed in longitudinal studies to assess the external validity of the instrument.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{pmid35379610,

title = {For a structured response to the psychosocial consequences of the restrictive measures imposed by the global COVID-19 health pandemic: the MAVIPAN longitudinal prospective cohort study protocol},

author = {Annie LeBlanc and Marie Baron and Patrick Blouin and George Tarabulsy and Francois Routhier and Catherine Mercier and Jean-Pierre Despres and Marc Hébert and Yves De Koninck and Caroline Cellard and Delphine Collin-Vézina and Nancy Côté and Émilie Dionne and Richard Fleet and Marie-Hélène Gagné and Maripier Isabelle and Lily Lessard and Matthew Menear and Chantal Merette and Marie-Christine Ouellet and Marc-André Roy and Marie-Christine Saint-Jacques and Claudia Savard and },

doi = {10.1136/bmjopen-2021-048749},

issn = {2044-6055},

year  = {2022},

date = {2022-04-01},

journal = {BMJ Open},

volume = {12},

number = {4},

pages = {e048749},

abstract = {INTRODUCTION: The COVID-19 pandemic and associated restrictive measures have caused important disruptions in economies and labour markets, changed the way we work and socialise, forced schools to close and healthcare and social services to reorganise. This unprecedented crisis forces individuals to make considerable efforts to adapt and will have psychological and social consequences, mainly on vulnerable individuals, that will remain once the pandemic is contained and will most likely exacerbate existing social and gender health inequalities. This crisis also puts a toll on the capacity of our healthcare and social services structures to provide timely and adequate care. The MAVIPAN (Ma vie et la pandémie/ My Life and the Pandemic) study aims to document how individuals, families, healthcare workers and health organisations are affected by the pandemic and how they adapt.nnMETHODS AND ANALYSIS: MAVIPAN is a 5-year longitudinal prospective cohort study launched in April 2020 across the province of Quebec (Canada). Quantitative data will be collected through online questionnaires (4-6 times/year) according to the evolution of the pandemic. Qualitative data will be collected with individual and group interviews and will seek to deepen our understanding of coping strategies. Analysis will be conducted under a mixed-method umbrella, with both sequential and simultaneous analyses of quantitative and qualitative data.nnETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: MAVIPAN aims to support the healthcare and social services system response by providing high-quality, real-time information needed to identify those who are most affected by the pandemic and by guiding public health authorities' decision making regarding intervention and resource allocation to mitigate these impacts. MAVIPAN was approved by the Ethics Committees of the Primary Care and Population Health Research Sector of CIUSSS de la Capitale-Nationale (Committee of record) and of the additional participating institutions.nnTRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT04575571.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{pmid39144760,

title = {The Electroretinogram as a Potential Biomarker of Psychosis in Children at Familial Risk},

author = {Isabel Moreau and Marc Hébert and Michel Maziade and Alexandra Painchaud and Chantal Mérette},

doi = {10.1093/schizbullopen/sgac016},

issn = {2632-7899},

year  = {2022},

date = {2022-01-01},

journal = {Schizophr Bull Open},

volume = {3},

number = {1},

pages = {sgac016},

abstract = {We previously proposed the electroretinogram (ERG) as a promising biomarker of major psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia (SZ) and bipolar disorder (BP), given that we found anomalies in the ERG parameters of patients with these diagnoses as well as in their children who are at high risk (HR) of developing such disorders. The aim of the present study is to investigate the usefulness of the ERG for individual detection, among HR children, of an ERG profile resembling that of a SZ patient, as this may indicate a stronger likelihood of transition to psychosis. Using a logistic regression model previously derived from the ERG assessments of SZ patients and control (CT) subjects, individual risk scores were obtained for 61 HR and 80 CT youth. Those with a very high individual risk score were classified as "schizophrenia-like" (). We found that the HR subjects were 3.5 times more likely to be classified as  than the CT subjects (95% CI [1.1-11.8]). Furthermore, among the HR subjects, we studied the relationship between the  classification and psychotic-like experiences and found that HR subjects classified as  were 2.7 times more likely than all remaining HR subjects to have experienced psychotic-like symptoms (95% CI [1.3-4.6]), and 6.8 times more likely than those with a very low individual risk score (95% CI [1.4-40.4]). Our results suggest that a model previously derived from ERG data on SZ patients could be a potential tool for early detection of the susceptibility to a psychotic-like disorder among familial HR children.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{pmid34294652,

title = {The Pattern of Change in Depressive Symptoms and Inflammatory Markers After Electroconvulsive Therapy: A Systematic Review},

author = {Charles-Yoland Desfossés and Rossana Peredo and Andréane Chabot and Jean-Philippe Carmel and Pierre-Marc Tremblay and Chantal Mérette and Geneviève Picher and Isabelle Lachance and Simon Patry and Morgane Lemasson},

doi = {10.1097/YCT.0000000000000782},

issn = {1533-4112},

year  = {2021},

date = {2021-12-01},

journal = {J ECT},

volume = {37},

number = {4},

pages = {291--297},

abstract = {Depression is a major mental health disorder, and its pathophysiology is still largely unknown, as is the action mechanism of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). Some evidence suggests that inflammation might play a role in depression, and several studies have attempted to demonstrate a link between ECT and cytokines. This systematic review used a qualitative analysis to assess the effect of ECT on inflammatory markers as it relates to the clinical response of depressive symptoms in major depressive disorders. The bibliographic search engines CINAHL, Embase, PsychInfo, and PubMed were used to identify articles published up to July 2020. Search terms related to depression, ECT, and inflammation were used. Descriptive statistical analyses were performed to relate changes in inflammatory markers to clinical response to ECT. Twenty-five studies were included in the analysis. No systematic increases or decreases were found in a given inflammatory marker over the ECT; however, we observed that tumor necrosis factor α and interleukin-6 (IL-6) were more often found to be decreased after ECT, whereas IL-8 and IL-10 were more often found to be increased after treatment. No trend in correlation was found between the degree of clinical improvement of depressive symptoms and the variation of any inflammatory markers, despite positive clinical response to ECT. Great heterogeneity with regard to methodology used and lack of power of the studies included in this review could explain the lack of systematic change and correlation found in this study. Future research conducted on this subject should take into account these methodological limitations to allow subsequent meta-analysis.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{pmid34356162,

title = {Psychosocial Features of Shift Work Disorder},

author = {Annie Vallières and Chantal Mérette and Alric Pappathomas and Monica Roy and Célyne H Bastien},

doi = {10.3390/brainsci11070928},

issn = {2076-3425},

year  = {2021},

date = {2021-07-01},

journal = {Brain Sci},

volume = {11},

number = {7},

abstract = {To better understand Shift Work Disorder (SWD), this study investigates insomnia, sleepiness, and psychosocial features of night workers. The study compares night workers with or without SWD to day workers with or without insomnia. Seventy-nine night workers and 40 day workers underwent diagnostic interviews for sleep disorders and for psychopathologies. They completed questionnaires and a sleep diary for 14 days. The design was observatory upon two factors: Work schedule (night, day work) and sleep (good sleep, SWD/insomnia). Two-way ANCOVAs were conducted on psychosocial variables, and effect size were calculated. The clinical approach chosen led to distinct groups of workers. Night workers slept several periods (main sleep period after work, naps, nights on days off). High total wake time and low total sleep time characterized sleep in SWD. Most night workers with SWD still complained of sleepiness after main sleep. Cognitive activation distinguished groups of night workers. All other differences in psychosocial variables between night workers groups were similar to, but smaller than, the ones between day workers. The evaluation of SWD should consider all sleep periods of night workers with particular attention to self-reported total wake time, state sleepiness, and level of cognitive activation.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}