[Treatments for depression in consultation-liaison psychiatry: From theory to practice]

Treatments for depression include an adapted lifestyle, physical activity, psychotherapies, antidepressant and mood stabilizing drugs, neuromodulation, chronotherapy, spa treatments. Drug treatments used for major depressive episode are antidepressants and mood stabilizers. For a mild episode, psychotherapy is indicated. It should be combined with an antidepressant (serotonin reuptake inhibitor) for moderate and severe episodes. Suicide risk assessment is essential throughout the depressive episode. It is recommended to monitor at the start of antidepressant treatment for suicidal behavior, a change in mood suggesting an underlying bipolar disorder. The effectiveness of the treatment is evaluated after 4 to 8 weeks. The total duration of antidepressant treatment for an EDC is between 6 months and 1 year after remission, in order to prevent relapses. The use of liaison psychiatry, a real healthcare system within the general hospital, is strongly recommended for better screening and treatment of depression, thus reducing the length of hospital stays, improving the prognosis of depression. The aim of this article is to provide clinicians with a summary of validated data on the efficacy/tolerance of treatment for depression, and to suggest practical action to be taken on the main daily clinical situations: treating comorbid conditions, taking into account interactions drugs, manage the serotonin syndrome, lead to withdrawal from antidepressants, manage treatment in the elderly.

[Recommendations for a gradual and controlled resumption of electroconvulsive therapy in France during the period of lifting of the containment and of the COVID-19 pandemic linked to SARS-CoV-2]

La pandémie du COVID-19 a des conséquences majeures sur l’organisation des soins. En France et dans le monde, les centres pratiquant l’électroconvulsivothérapie (ECT) ont vu leur activité diminuer, voire s’arrêter, pour de diverses raisons. Dans ce contexte, le maintien ou la reprise de cette activité thérapeutique essentielle pour de nombreux patients souffrant de troubles psychiatriques nécessite des adaptations matérielles, humaines et logistiques qu’il convient d’encadrer. L’objectif de ce travail collectif et national est de proposer des recommandations simples et applicables immédiatement par tout établissement de santé, public ou privé, pratiquant les ECT. Elles sont issues d’un retour d’expériences pluriprofessionnelles et interétablissements. Déclinées en trois étapes, ces recommandations sont accompagnées d’une fiche pratique qui décrit, de façon précise, les conditions nécessaires et préalables à toute reprise d’activité ECT.