Raphaëlle Merlo’s research while affiliated with Université Laval and other places

Background Systematically collecting data on clientele databases allows for describing the clientele's needs and addressing various clinical research questions. Conducted in a university psychology clinic, this initiative seeks to improve the overall quality of care provided by integrating evidence‐based practices. This study works to bridge the gap between clinical practice and research. Aims This study aimed to describe the potential repercussions and clinicians' impressions regarding the implementation of this procedure. Research Design An inductive qualitative approach, inspired by Husserl's descriptive phenomenology, was used. To be consistent with this approach, data analysis followed Giorgi's five‐step scientific phenomenological method. Data Collection and Analysis Semi‐structured individual interviews were conducted with 14 volunteer clinicians using an interview guide. The data were analysed to extract central themes using Giorgi's method, which involves collecting verbal data, reading the data, dividing it into units of meaning, organising the data using the language of the discipline and synthesising the results. Results Five central themes emerged: barriers to implementation, potential impacts on therapy, recommendations to enhance participation, perceived utility and an attitude of openness. Discussion The pilot project provides valuable insights into the feasibility and acceptability of systematic data collection in a clinical setting. Clinician consultation proves to be essential in the implementation process, highlighting the importance of addressing practical and philosophical obstacles. Conclusion Understanding clinicians' experiences can guide future implementations of similar systems and improve clinical practice by supporting the integration of systematic data collection. Enhanced communication and training on the data collection system are suggested.

Narratives are effective tools for evoking emotions, and physiological measurements provide a means of objectively assessing emotional reactions – making them a potentially powerful pair of tools for studying emotional processes. However, extent research combining emotional narratives and physiological measurement varies widely in design and application, making it challenging to identify previous work, consolidate findings, and design effective experiments. Our scoping review explores the use of auditory emotional narratives and physiological measures in research, examining paradigms, study populations, and represented emotions. Following the PRISMA‐ScR Checklist, we searched five databases for peer‐reviewed experimental studies that used spoken narratives to induce emotion and reported autonomic physiological measures. Among 3466 titles screened and 653 articles reviewed, 110 studies were included. Our exploration revealed a variety of applications and experimental paradigms; emotional narratives paired with physiological measures have been used to study diverse topics and populations, including neurotypical and clinical groups. Although incomparable designs and sometimes contradictory results precluded general recommendations as regards which physiological measures to use when designing new studies, as a whole, the body of work suggests that these tools can be valuable to study emotions. Our review offers an overview of research employing narratives and physiological measures for emotion study, and highlights weaknesses in reporting practices and gaps in our knowledge concerning the robustness and specificity of physiological measures as indices of emotion. We discuss study design considerations and transparent reporting, to facilitate future using emotional narratives and physiological measures in studying emotions.

Clinical teams working with clients with psychotic disorders have turned to teletherapy to continue offering services to their clients during the Covid-19 pandemic. However, few studies have focused on the challenges of teletherapy by professionals. We conducted a brief online survey with professionals working with clients with a psychotic disorder across Canada. Qualitative analysis of open-ended questions was conducted. Around 86% of the professionals we surveyed began using teletherapy at the beginning of the pandemic. Most professionals (83%) said that they would keep using teletherapy after the end of the pandemic. Numerous advantages and challenges of teletherapy were also discussed.

Closed-loop auditory stimulation (CLAS) is a brain modulation technique in which sounds are timed to enhance or disrupt endogenous neurophysiological events. CLAS of slow oscillation up-states in sleep is becoming a popular tool to study and enhance sleep's functions, as it increases slow oscillations, evokes sleep spindles and enhances memory consolidation of certain tasks. However, few studies have examined the specific neurophysiological mechanisms involved in CLAS, in part because of practical limitations to available tools. To evaluate evidence for possible models of how sound stimulation during brain up-states alters brain activity, we simultaneously recorded electro- and magnetoencephalography in human participants who received auditory stimulation across sleep stages. We conducted a series of analyses that test different models of pathways through which CLAS of slow oscillations may affect widespread neural activity that have been suggested in literature, using spatial information, timing and phase relationships in the source-localized magnetoencephalography data. The results suggest that auditory information reaches ventral frontal lobe areas via non-lemniscal pathways. From there, a slow oscillation is created and propagated. We demonstrate that while the state of excitability of tissue in auditory cortex and frontal ventral regions shows some synchrony with the electroencephalography (EEG)-recorded up-states that are commonly used for CLAS, it is the state of ventral frontal regions that is most critical for slow oscillation generation. Our findings advance models of how CLAS leads to enhancement of slow oscillations, sleep spindles and associated cognitive benefits and offer insight into how the effectiveness of brain stimulation techniques can be improved.

Closed-loop auditory stimulation (CLAS) is a brain modulation technique in which sounds are timed to enhance or disrupt endogenous neurophysiological events. CLAS of slow oscillation up-states in sleep is becoming a popular tool to study and potentially enhance sleep's functions, as it can increase slow oscillations, evoke sleep spindles, and enhance memory consolidation of certain tasks. However, few studies have examined the specific neurophysiological mechanisms involved in CLAS, in part because of practical limitations to commonly-used tools. To evaluate evidence for possible models of how sound stimulation during brain up-states might generate slow oscillations, we simultaneously recorded electro- and magnetoencephalography in human participants who received auditory stimulation across sleep stages and neural oscillation phases. The results suggest that auditory information reaches ventral frontal lobe areas via non-lemniscal pathways. From there, a slow oscillation is created and propagated. We demonstrate that while the state of excitability of tissue in auditory cortex and frontal ventral regions shows some synchrony with the EEG-recorded up-states that are commonly used for CLAS, it is the state of ventral frontal regions that is most critical for slow oscillation generation. Our findings advance models of how CLAS leads to enhancement of slow oscillations, sleep spindles, and associated cognitive benefits, and offer insight into how the effectiveness of brain stimulation techniques can be improved.

Background: A major model in psychiatry that influences service delivery is the recovery model which emphasizes personal goals and overcoming obstacles to meet them. The Client Assessment of Strengths, Interests, and Goals - CASIG (Wallace, Lecomte, Wilde, & Liberman, 2001) is a well-known functional assessment, that was not only presented deficits and obstacles for psychiatric rehabilitation, but also included short and long-term goals. It included goals, and skills essential to community living, it was used for treatment planning, and repeatedly administered to assess progress over time. Its psychometric properties have been documented within both American and French-Canadian samples. The CASIG has however aged, with items that are not close enough to the recovery model and that reflect treatment paradigms more present in the late 90’s. Hence, this new French version aims to 1) adapt the current version with non-stigmatizing and skills-oriented terms, 2) add new dimensions recognized as important factors for recovery (i.e., sleep, physical exercises), and 3) evaluate its psychometric characteristics: convergent validity, internal consistency, and test-retest reliability. Methods: The self-report was administrated to 201 individuals with serious and persistent mental illness across four French speaking countries (Canada, France, Switzerland and Belgium). The sample included 69.5% females and participants all reported an history of mental disorder: Major depression=90, psychotic disorder=12, eating disorder=3, anxiety disorder=55, bipolar disorder=15, neurodevelopmental disorder=7, and substance use disorder=3. We examined the factor structure, internal consistency, concurrent, and convergent validities of the current version. Instruments for convergent validity were : The Recovery Assessment Scale (Corrigan, Salzer, Ralph, Sangster, & Keck, 2004) , The psychological well-being scale (Ryff & Keyes, 1995), and the World Health Organization disability assessment schedule 2.0 (Ustun et al., 2010). Results: Internal consistency for the resulting subscales ranged from acceptable to good (Kuder Richardson= 0.76 to 0.89). All subscales were significantly, positively associated with established measures of theoretically relevant constructs, demonstrating concurrent and convergent validities. The test-retests also demonstrated stability over times at the two follow-ups: one month, and six months. Discussion: The French CASIG is a reliable and valid instrument assessing individual needs, and the use of those data is structured to determine treatment planning and evaluation, as well as producing aggregate data for research and program purposes. More extensive validity will be presented. These results should be repeated, with an English-speaking sample as well.

People with psychotic disorders are at higher risk of not completing an educational degree and tend to get low-wage jobs. We offered computer coding classes to 14 participants. The training was deemed feasible, acceptable, and appeared to increase their motivation for school or work, not only in computer-related domains.