Chronic pain (CP) and psychiatric disorders (PD) are common in older adults, and they both may significantly impact patients’ functioning and quality of life. However, research on the prevalence and impact of CP in people with PD remains limited – especially in older adults – and psychiatric care often neglects somatic comorbidities.

The main objective of the DoCPPA study is to determine the prevalence and characteristics of CP in older adults with PD followed-up in psychiatric services. Our secondary objective is to estimate associations between CP and various clinical indicators related to physical, cognitive, and mental health, as well as quality of life.

Setting: Department of Aging Psychiatry of Le Vinatier Hospital Center (France, Bron), inpatient and outpatient psychiatric services.

Method/Design: Cross-sectional monocentric study with 430 older patients (65 and over) with PD, under psychiatric care. The inclusion period will be 36 months.

Measures:

• - Pain: STOPNEP; CSI-A; BPI-SF; history of drug and non-drug analgesic treatment; current analgesic prescription

• - Physical health: hypertension; diabetes; smoking history; hypercholesterolemia; BMI

• - Mental health: ICD-10 psychiatric diagnoses and age at onset; GAD-7; CES-D; NPI; history of psychiatric hospitalizations and suicidal behaviors; current psychotropic prescription

• - Cognition: MMSE; 5-word test; FAB; other neuropsychological tests

• - Autonomy level and quality of life : type of housing; protective measures; human assistance; IADL; SF-12; PSQI; mini-Zarit

The results are expected in 2026, once the inclusion period has ended.

This study aims to contribute to improving care in aging psychiatry, a field where a major challenge lies in the management of multiple chronic conditions. Perspectives at different levels :

Scientific : improve knowledge of CP in an understudied population

Clinical : improve the assessment and management of pain in this specific population

Public health : improve the coordination of care and optimise their use of the healthcare system

None Declared

The Covid-19 pandemic context may have had numerous effects on the health of older patients with psychiatric disorders (PD), confronting them with a new source of stress and hindering their access to care. These effects could have included the onset of post-traumatic stress (PTSD) symptoms — as well as chronic pain (CP), which often occurs alongside trauma.

CP and PTSD share a common pathological mechanism and numerous studies have highlighted the frequent co-occurrence of CP and PTSD.

Explanatory models for this link still lack evidence. Furthermore, they have not been tested in older and/or PD populations.

The aim of this study was to assess the long-term effects of the pandemic on both CP and PTSD; the comorbidity of the two disorders; and to identify common psychological risk factors.

Design: Medical interviews were conducted during and after (12 and 18 months later) the first lockdown.

Setting: The STERACOVID longitudinal cohort study, conducted in two French hospitals.

Participants: 71 patients aged 65 or over; treated in an outpatient psychiatric service; and free of major neurocognitive disorders.

Measurements: Validated scales were used to assess CP (ICD-11 criteria); PTSD (PCL-S); personality traits (BFI-Fr); attachment style (RSQ); and coping strategies (BRIEF-COPE). χ² and Student’s t-tests, analyses of variance and logistic regression were used to compare patients with or without CP and/or PTSD, in terms of attachment styles, personality traits and coping strategies.

Prevalence of :

CP : 17% at T1 to 55% at T2, p = .005*

PTSD : 31% at T2

Association between CP and PTSD : PTSD frequency : 41% of CP2+ patients vs. 19% of CP2- patients, p = .043*

Attachment style: CP1-CP2+ more fearful than CP1-CP2- (OR = 2.71, p = 0.046*)

PTSD2+ more fearful (3.40 vs. 2.90, F = 2.43, p = 0.020*) and preoccupied (2.53 vs. 2.12, F = 5.66, p = 0.026*) than PTSD2-

CP2+PTSD2+ and CP2+PTSD2- more fearful than CP2-PTSD2-

Personality factors: CP1+ more extraverted than CP1-CP2- (OR = 3.61, p = 0.050*)

PTSD2+ more neurotic than PTSD2- (3.81 vs. 3.31, F = 6.35, p = 0.014*)

CP2+PTSD2- more extraverted than CP-PTSD2-

Coping strategies: no associations

CP and PTSD were frequent and often co-occurring, 18 months after the first lockdown. Our study identified factors associated with a higher risk of developing CP and/or PTSD in the pandemic context :

Attachment styles: insecure-anxious profiles were more likely to develop CP and/or PTSD

Personality traits: extraversion predicted CP, neuroticism predicted PTSD but not CP

These results are in line with the anxiety sensitivity hypothesis: common vulnerability etiology for CP and PTSD, predicted by neuroticism and extraversion traits, and insecure-anxious attachment styles.

None Declared

Individuals with severe mental illness (SMI) have increased risk of physical comorbidities, linked to worse outcomes such as greater psychopathology, frailty, and neurocognitive impairment. Mechanisms underlying this burden remain unclear. This study examined whether frailty and psychopathology predict evening chronotype, especially in SMI with comorbidities.

A longitudinal study assessed 165 participants at two time points over one year: schizophrenia (n = 30), bipolar disorder (n = 42), major depressive disorder (n = 35), and healthy controls (n = 58). The SMI group (n = 107) was divided into SMI with comorbidities (SMI-C; n = 47) and without (SMI; n = 60). Measures included psychopathology, frailty, chronotype, neurocognitive and functional performance, and hematological biomarkers.

Neurocognitive and functional impairments were greater in SMI groups than controls (F = 10.3–31.4; p < 0.0001; η²p = 0.12–0.34). The SMI-C group showed worse frailty than controls at T1 (F = 4.3; p < 0.01; η²p = 0.05) and than SMI at T2 (F = 8.5; p < 0.0001; η²p = 0.12), and elevated MCV/MCH (F = 3.8–9.4; p < 0.05–0.0001; η²p = 0.04–0.11). Chronotype distribution did not differ. Frailty and psychopathology predicted chronotype in SMI (p < 0.05–0.01); in controls, frailty and performance did so (p < 0.05).

Psychopathological and hematological profiles are associated with chronotype and may help identify subgroups for chronobiology-informed interventions. These findings support more personalized treatment approaches.

This study explores associations between clusters characterising urban Canadians’ retail food environments and their acceptability levels of three policies aimed at promoting healthier restaurant food environments (RFE).

The three examined policies related to (1) proposing healthier menu default options, (2) restricting the establishment of fast-food restaurants near schools and (3) eliminating unhealthy foods from municipal buildings’ food outlets. Retail food environment clusters were available for 1- and 3-km buffer zones from the centroid of participants’ residential dissemination area. Retail food environment data were extracted from Can-FED, whereas acceptability data were provided by the THEPA dataset.

Retail food environments present across Canada’s seventeen most populated census metropolitan areas.

Urban-dwelling Canadians (n 27 162).

Results from multivariate multilevel logistic regression analyses showed that those who were surrounded by the greatest relative density of both healthy food outlets (HFO) and fast-food outlets (FFO) within a 3-km buffer zone were less likely to be in complete agreement with the fast-food zoning policy than the reference category. Findings also indicated that, within a 1-km buffer zone, those whose retail food environment was categorised as being the least healthy (no HFO and highest relative density of FFO) were less likely to be in complete agreement with the unhealthy food elimination policy than the reference category.

This study provides new evidence of associations between retail food environments and RFE policy acceptability, which may help orient the implementation of these policies.

Impulsivity, a multifaceted construct, is a core feature of borderline personality disorder (BPD), associated with functional impairment and suicide mortality. Findings on motor inhibitory control, a key dimension of impulsivity, in BPD are heterogeneous.

This PRISMA-guided meta-analysis examines motor inhibitory control in adults with BPD compared to healthy controls (HCs), using Stop-Signal Task and Go/No-Go Task data. Thirty-seven datasets from 35 articles were included.

Results from random-effect models suggest that BPD patients exhibit significantly higher motor inhibitory control deficits than HCs, with a small to moderate effect size. Contrary to common assumptions, a mixed-model effect found that emotional factors did not moderate inhibitory control in BPD. Finally, the meta-analysis revealed that self-reported impulsivity measures did not correlate with task performance, suggesting that subjective and objective measures of impulsivity may assess different facets of the construct.

These findings highlight the need for greater standardization of task-based measures of impulsivity, as methodological heterogeneity and quality currently limit replicability across studies.

The lifetime prevalence of PTSD ranges from 6 to 20% and is often associated with comorbid disorders. Despite the significant impact of PTSD, specific data on healthcare utilization related to PTSD remain limited. This study aims to characterize PTSD-related hospitalizations in France over the past decade.

This nationwide longitudinal retrospective study analyzed PTSD-related hospitalizations in France from 2013 to 2022 using the French National Hospitals Database. Data included discharge records from general and psychiatric hospitals, detailing demographics, admission/discharge dates, ICD-10 diagnoses, and hospitalization specifics.

Between 2013 and 2022, 69,108 patients underwent 125,349 hospitalizations with a PTSD diagnosis (0.4% of all inpatient cases) in France. Psychiatric facilities accounted for 74,988 hospitalizations (1% of all psychiatric inpatient cases in France), while general hospitals recorded 50,361 hospitalizations (0.02% of all non-psychiatric inpatient cases). The percentage of inpatients diagnosed with PTSD increased from 0.68 to 2.22% in psychiatric facilities and from 0.02 to 0.04% in general hospitals over the study period. Females were younger in both settings and had longer stays compared to males in psychiatric facilities. Over time, there was a decrease in median age and an increase in part-time hospitalizations in psychiatric facilities. Mood disorders, stress-related disorders, and substance use disorders were prevalent comorbidities in both settings.

This study highlights a rise in PTSD-related hospitalizations in France, particularly in psychiatric facilities and after 2019, with high rates among women and an increase in hospitalization of younger individuals. These findings highlight the necessity for improved care strategies tailored to the increasing number of younger patients with PTSD.

The adoption of policies promoting healthier restaurant food environments is contingent on their acceptability. Limited evidence exists regarding individual characteristics associated with restaurant food environment policy acceptability, especially health-related characteristics. This study examined associations between health characteristics and restaurant food environment policy acceptability among urban Canadians.

Links between health characteristics and complete agreement levels with selected policies were examined using data in the cross-sectional Targeting Healthy Eating and Physical Activity survey study, that is, a large pan-Canadian study on policy acceptability. For each policy, several logistic multilevel regression analyses were conducted.

Canada’s seventeen most populated census metropolitan areas.

Urban Canadian adults responded to the survey (n 27 162).

Body mass index was not associated with acceptability after adjustments for other health and sociodemographic characteristics were made. Across all policies and analyses, those reporting excellent or very good health statuses were more likely to be in complete agreement with targeted policies than those with good health statuses. For selected policies and analyses, those reporting poor health statuses were also more likely to be in complete agreement than those describing their health status as good. For all policies and analyses, both those consuming restaurant-prepared foods daily and those never consuming these foods were more likely to be in complete agreement than those consuming these foods once per week.

More research is needed to explain discrepancies in acceptability according to health characteristics. Bringing this study’s findings to the attention of policymakers may help build momentum for policy enactment.