Francois Herrmann

University of Geneva | UNIGE · Department of Internal Medicine

Introduction. As the chemokine receptor5 (CCR5) may play a role in ischemia, we studied the links between CCR5 deficiency, the sensitivity of neurons to oxidative stress, and the development of dementia. Methods. Logistic regression models with CCR5 and ApoE polymorphisms were applied to 205 cognitively normal and 189 dementia patients included in...

Background: Fear of falling is associated with numerous negative health outcomes in older adults and can limit the rehabilitation process. Hypnosis is now recognized as an effective treatment for a variety of conditions, especially anxiety and pain, which can be integrated safely with conventional medicine. The objective of this study was to assess...

Daylight saving time (DST) consists in a one-hour advancement of legal time in spring offset by a backward transition of the same magnitude in fall. It creates a minimal circadian misalignment that could disrupt sleep and homoeostasis in susceptible individuals and lead to an increased incidence of pathologies and accidents during the weeks immedia...

Objective To assess whether gait, neuropsychological, and multimodal MRI parameters predict short-term symptom reversal after cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) tap test in idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus (iNPH). Methods Thirty patients (79.3 ± 5.9 years, 12 women) with a diagnosis of probable iNPH and 46 healthy controls (74.7 ± 5.4 years, 35 wom...

Background: The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic was particularly devastating for elderly people, and the underlying mechanisms of the disease are still poorly understood. In this study, we investigated fusion inhibitory antibodies (fiAbs) in elderly and younger COVID-19 patients and analyzed predictive factors for their occurrence. Methods: Data and samples...

Among detained persons, those incarcerated for the first time (FTI: first time incarceration) are known to present long-standing psychological vulnerability but also suffer significant deterioration of their mental health during the first year following imprisonment. Whether the patterns of psychiatric morbidity differ in FTI cases compared to case...

Previous studies using the dot-perspective task postulated that people automatically take into account others' perspective even when it prevents them from achieving their own goals. This human ability may be of key importance for the ascription of mental states and social interactions. The cognitive and emotional determinants of automatic perspecti...

Objectives: Established visual brain MRI markers for dementia include hippocampal atrophy (mesio-temporal atrophy MTA), white matter lesions (Fazekas score), and number of cerebral microbleeds (CMBs). We assessed whether novel quantitative, artificial intelligence (AI)-based volumetric scores provide additional value in predicting subsequent cogni...

Background Despite successful functional neurosurgery, patients suffering from epilepsy or Parkinson’s disease may experience postoperative psychological distress and social maladjustments. Difficulties in coping with postoperative changes, even positive ones, have shown to be related to patients’ presurgery cognitive representations (i.e., expecta...

Recently, we showed that DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) are increased by the Aβ42-amyloid peptide and decreased by all-trans retinoic acid (RA) in SH-SY5Y cells and C57BL/6J mice. The present work was aimed at investigating DSBs in cells and murine models of Alzheimer’s disease carrying the preseniline-1 (PS1) P117L mutation. We observed that DSBs...

Background Both the frequency of court-ordered treatments (COT) for offenders and prevalence of mental disorders among regular prison inmates steadily increased in most western countries. Whether there are major sociodemographic and clinical differences between these two populations is still matter of debate. Methods We compared the sociodemograph...

Background: Several studies postulated that personality is an independent determinant of cognitive trajectories in old age. Objective: This study explores the impact of personality on widely used Alzheimer's disease (AD) and vascular imaging markers. Methods: We examined the association between personality and three classical AD imaging marker...

Rationale Risk factors for drug addiction include genetics, environment, and behavioral traits such as impulsivity and novelty preference (NP), which have been related to deficits in striatal dopamine (DA) D 2/3 -receptors (D 2/3 R) and heightened amphetamine (AMPH)-induced DA release. However, the influence of the early rearing environment on thes...

Introduction La plupart des interventions en cours de développement pour le traitement de la sarcopénie visent à améliorer la masse musculaire. Compte tenu des évidences croissantes en faveur d’un rôle clef du système nerveux central dans la sarcopénie, l’hypothèse peut être émise que certaines interventions spécifiques ciblant ce système pourraien...

The provision of high-quality palliative care in nursing homes (NHs) requires specific knowledge and skills among health professionals. The aims of the study were to assess quality of care during the dying process and quality of end-of-life of NH residents in the French and Italian parts of Switzerland. 90 residents died during the study period (me...

Background: Body weight (BW) loss is prevalent in patients with pancreatic cancer (PC). Gut microbiota affects BW and is known to directly shape the host immune responses and antitumor immunity. This pilot study evaluated the link between gut microbiota, metabolic parameters and inflammatory/immune parameters, through the fecal material transplant...

Background The determinants of the progressive decrement of cognition in normal aging are still a matter of debate. Alzheimer disease (AD)-signature markers and vascular lesions, but also psychological variables such as personality factors, are thought to have an impact on the longitudinal trajectories of neuropsychological performances in healthy...

Background Protein energy wasting is associated with negative outcome in patients under chronic haemodialysis (HD). Branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) may increase the muscle mass. This post hoc analysis of a controlled double-blind randomized crossover study assessed the impact of BCAAs on nutritional status, physical function, and quality of life...

Background We have previously shown that glycine increases fat-free mass in chronic haemodialysis patients with features of malnutrition as compared with branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs). This multicentre randomized double-blind crossover study evaluates the impact of these amino acids on the gut barrier and microbiota. Methods Haemodialysis pat...

Background: One of the main challenges for clinicians is to ensure that alcohol withdrawal treatment is the most effective possible after discharge. To address this issue, we designed a pilot study to investigate the efficacy of the rehabilitation treatment on the main stages of information processing, using an electroencephalographic method. This...

Background Europe has emerged as a major climate change hotspot, both in terms of an increase in seasonal averages and climate extremes. Projections of temperature-attributable mortality, however, have not been comprehensively reported for an extensive part of the continent. Therefore, we aim to estimate the future effect of climate change on tempe...

Quantitative imaging processing tools have been proposed to improve clinic-radiological correlations but their added value at the initial stages of cognitive decline is still a matter of debate. We performed a longitudinal study in 90 community-dwelling elders with three neuropsychological assessments during a 4.5 year follow-up period, and visual...

Background: Despite successful functional neurosurgery, patients suffering from epilepsy or Parkinson’s disease may experience postoperative psychological distress and social maladjustments. Difficulties in coping with postoperative changes, even positive ones, have shown to be related to patients’ presurgery cognitive representations (i.e., expect...

COVER ILLUSTRATION Idiopathic Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus (iNPH), the leading cause of reversible dementia in ageing, is currently underdiagnosed and poorly understood. Using functional brain imaging and molecular data, Griffa et al. demonstrate an alteration of Default Mode Network resting‐state dynamics in iNPH patients compared to healthy cont...

Among the different types of heavy use of mental health services, frequent inpatient admission in acute care units of individuals unable to return to their usual environment refers to as revolving-door (RD). RD in prisoners is related to increased violence (acted and supported) and suicidal recidivism. We explored the determinants of RD in 200 inma...

Background & Aims: To investigate the association of nutritional risk at admission with the length of hospital stay (LOS) and mortality in older patients with COVID-19. Methods: Retrospective monocentric study in an acute geriatric hospital. Data were collected after an extensive review of medical records and the nutritional risk was assessed accor...

Background The severe acute respiratory coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) has been associated with neurological complications, including acute encephalopathy. In order to better understand the neuropathogenesis of this acute encephalopathy, we describe a series of patients with COVID‐19 encephalopathy, highlighting its phenomenology and its neurobiologica...

Background: Delirium prevalence increases with age and is associated with poor outcomes. We aimed to investigate the prevalence and risk factors for delirium in older patients hospitalized with COVID-19, as well as its association with length of stay and mortality. Methods: Retrospective study of patients aged ≥ 65 years hospitalized with COVID-19....

Background Stroke in the course of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has been shown to be associated with more severe respiratory symptoms and higher mortality, but little knowledge in this regard exists on older populations. We aimed to investigate the incidence, characteristics, and prognosis of acute stroke in geriatric patients hospitalized with C...

Background Compared to conventional transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), the triple stimulation technique (TST) strongly decrease the effects of desynchronization of descending discharges and accompanying phase cancellation that follow TMS and offers a more sensitive method to quantify motor evoked potentials (MEPs). New method Using the TST,...

Background Fear of falling is highly prevalent in older adults and associated with numerous negative health events. The main objective of this study was to validate a scale to assess fear of falling, based on performance in real situation (Perform-FES), in a hospitalized geriatric population. Methods In this cross-sectional study, 55 patients (mea...

Idiopathic Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus (iNPH)-the leading cause of reversible dementia in aging-is characterized by ventriculomegaly and gait, cognitive and urinary impairments. Despite its high prevalence estimated at 6% among the elderlies, iNPH remains underdiagnosed and undertreated due to the lack of iNPH-specific diagnostic markers and limi...

Introduction Les chutes sont extrêmement fréquentes chez le sujet âgé et associées à la survenue de nombreux événements défavorables, y inclus la fracture. L’avancée en âge s’accompagne d’une dégénérescence progressive du rachis, résultant typiquement en une détérioration de l’équilibre global, avec la mise en jeu de mécanismes de compensation. Le...

Background: Stroke in the course of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) was associated with higher severity of respiratory symptoms and mortality, but little knowledge exists on older populations. We aimed to investigate the incidence, characteristics, and prognosis of acute stroke in old patients hospitalized with COVID-19. Methods: Monocentric retrosp...

The older patients have been the most affected by the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. In addition, this infection has been responsible for high mortality rate in this population. In this article we wanted to describe the clinical findings we encountered in older people with COVID-19 and share some of the issues and challenges we faced during the COVID-19 pand...

Background Impulsivity and novelty preference are both associated with an increased propensity to develop addiction-like behaviors, but their relationship and respective underlying dopamine (DA) underpinnings are not fully elucidated. Methods We evaluated a large cohort (n=49) of Roman high-(RHA) and low-(RLA) avoidance rats using single photon em...

The mentalizing network (MN) treats social interactions based on our understanding of other people's intentions and includes the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), temporoparietal junction (TPJ), posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), precuneus (PC), and amygdala. Not all elders are equally affected by the aging-related decrease of mentalizing abilities....

Assessment of amyloid deposits is a critical step for the identification of Alzheimer disease (AD) signature in asymptomatic elders. Whether the different amyloid processing methods impacts on the quality of clinico-radiological correlations is still unclear. We directly compared in 155 elderly controls with extensive neuropsychological testing at...

Objective: This randomized controlled trial (RCT) aimed to demonstrate the noninferiority of mandibular 2-implant overdentures (IODs) on a CAD-CAM milled bar with long distal extensions against conventional IODs on retentive anchors. Methods: Forty edentulous participants already rehabilitated with a maxillary conventional denture and a mandibula...

Objective To determine predictors of in-hospital mortality related to COVID-19 in older patients. Design Retrospective cohort study. Setting and Participants Patients aged 65 years and older hospitalized for a diagnosis of COVID-19. Methods Data from hospital admission were collected from the electronic medical records. Logistic regression and C...

It was with great interest that we read the study of Knight and colleagues regarding risk stratification of patients with COVID-19 according to the 4C mortality score [1]. The authors considered eight predictors of in-hospital mortality: age, sex, number of comorbidities, respiratory rate, peripheral oxygen saturation, Glasgow coma scale, urea leve...

Background: The cognitive trajectories in normal aging may be affected by medial temporal atrophy (MTA) and amyloid burden, as well as vascular pathologies such as cortical microbleeds (CMB) and white matter hyperintensities (WMH). Objective: We addressed here the role of imaging markers in their prediction in a real-world situation. Methods:...

Background The topic of false memory in schizophrenia has been well documented in earlier research contributions. To date, there is no study exploring the implications of specific neural networks during this phenomenon in patients suffering from schizophrenia. Methods We compared 17 patients suffering from psychosis (SCZ) to 33 healthy controls (H...

Medial temporal lobe (MTL) atrophy is an important marker for the clinical diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease at its prodromal stages. Several brain lesions have been associated with MTL atrophy including hippocampal sclerosis, neurodegenerative neuronal loss and vascular pathology. In order to better explore the relationship between MTL volume on MR...

There is a debate on possible alterations of self-identity following deep brain stimulation for neurological disorders including Parkinson’s disease. Among the psychological variables likely to undergo changes throughout such a medical procedure, illness representations and coping strategies have not been the target of much research to this day. In...

Background A high phase angle derived from bioelectrical impedance analysis has been linked to a high level of physical activity. However, it is unknown whether a high phase angle is related to running performance. Methods We included all subjects who participated for the first time to the Course de l’Escalade between 1999 and 2016, a yearly city...

Objectives To measure the use of healthcare services and assistive devices by centenarians in five countries. Design Cross-sectional study using a survey questionnaire. Setting Community-dwelling and institutionalised centenarians living in Japan, France, Switzerland, Sweden and Denmark. Participants 1253 participants aged 100 or in their 100th...

The relationship between personality profiles and brain integrity in old age is still matter of debate. We examined the association between Big Five factor and facet scores and MRI brain volume changes upon a 54-month follow-up in 65 elderly controls with three neurocognitive assessments (baseline, 18 and 54 months), structural brain MRI (baseline...

Idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus (iNPH) is a prevalent reversible neurological disorder characterized by impaired locomotion, cognition and urinary control with ventriculomegaly. Symptoms can be relieved with cerebrospinal fluid drainage, which makes iNPH the leading cause of reversible dementia. Because of a limited understanding of pathop...

Background: Cortical superficial siderosis (cSS) is a hemorrhagic marker of blood-brain barrier disruption detected in brain MRI. Together with cerebral microbleeds (CMB), they are recognized as a small vessel disease marker associated with cerebral amyloid angiopathy. Objective: This study aims to determine the prevalence and the characteristic...

Background: Several studies have shown a significant positive impact of intensive short-term ambulatory psychiatric interventions for depression. However, data on outcomes related to factors that are predictive of the efficacy of these interventions in terms of remission or response to treatment remain scarce. The goal of this naturalistic prospec...

Working memory (WM) deficits constitute a core symptom of schizophrenia. Inadequacy of WM maintenance in schizophrenia has been reported to reflect abnormalities in the excitation/inhibition (E/I) balance between pyramidal neurons and parvalbumin basket cells, which may explain alterations of the dynamics of gamma and delta oscillations. To address...

Background: Hippocampal volume loss (HVL), PET-documented brain amyloid accumulation, and APOE-ε4 status are predictive biomarkers of the transition from mild cognitive impairment to Alzheimer disease (AD). In asymptomatic cases, the role of these biomarkers remains ambiguous. In contrast to the idea that HVL occurs in late phases of neurodegenerat...

Patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) may benefit from deep brain stimulation (DBS) to improve motor and medication-induced symptoms. Yet mixed evidence regarding the outcome of successful DBS on couple satisfaction has been highlighted in the literature. Thirty patients diagnosed with PD were included in a study investigating couple satisfaction...

Psychosocial maladjustment frequently occurs following deep brain stimulation (DBS) in patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD). This paper aimed at investigating, for the first time with first-hand data, whether the burden of normality model (BoN) could adequately describe the manifestations and underlying dynamics of psychosocial maladjustment afte...

Mesial temporal lobe (MTL) is prominently affected in normal aging and associated with neurodegeneration in AD. Whether or not MTL atrophy is dependent on increasing amyloid load before the emergence of cognitive deficits is still disputed. We performed a 4.5-year longitudinal study in 75 older community dwellers (48 women, mean age: 79.3 years) in...

Objectives: This in-vitro study aimed to compare changes in retentive force due to cyclic dislodging of three novel un-splinted attachments. Materials and methods: Experimental models simulating a mandibular two-implant overdenture situation, with implants positioned with various interimplant discrepancies (0°, 20°, 40°, 60°) were fabricated. Th...

Background and PurposeAmyloid imaging, gray matter (GM) morphometry and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) have all been used as predictive biomarkers in dementia. Our objective was to define the imaging profile of healthy elderly controls as a function of their cognitive trajectories and explore whether amyloid burden and white matter (WM) microstruct...