La psychopathie est souvent associée à tort comme un trouble se retrouvant exclusivement chez des criminels alors que jusqu’à 8 % de la population générale pourrait présenter des traits psychopathiques élevés. Récemment, nous observons un essor de recherches tentant d’appliquer des théories évolutionnistes, telles que la sélection naturelle, à des processus psychologiques et à la personnalité. Des théoriciens de la psychologie évolutionniste se sont penchés sur la prévalence considérable de la psychopathie dans la population générale et tentent de l’expliquer par le caractère adaptatif de ses traits chez ses individus. Les caractéristiques de la psychopathie comme une faible empathie, une tendance à la manipulation, aux mensonges et à l’impulsivité pourraient leur permettre de profiter du reste de la société et ainsi s’approprier différentes ressources. De plus, leur capacité à faire abstraction des émotions pourrait leur conférer un avantage quant à la détection du mensonge, notamment dans des situations à haute teneur émotionnelle. Cette thèse vise à présenter une revue de la littérature à jour des différentes théories évolutionnistes expliquant la psychopathie comme étant une forme d’adaptation à l’environnement. En outre, elle cherche à évaluer la relation entre la détection du mensonge et les traits psychopathiques, en remédiant à plusieurs lacunes méthodologiques des études précédentes. En nous inspirant des différentes théories évolutionnistes explicatives de la psychopathie et de Lyons et al. (2013), nous avons émis l’hypothèse que les traits psychopathiques permettraient une meilleure détection du mensonge à haute teneur émotionnelle et que cette relation serait plus marquée chez les hommes que chez les femmes. Pour tester ces hypothèses, nous avons recueilli les réponses de 504 participants, composés de 333 femmes (65,9 %) et de 163 hommes (32,4 %) provenant de la population générale. Les résultats indiquent qu’il n’y avait pas de lien entre l’intensité des traits psychopathiques et la capacité à détecter un mensonge lorsque l’âge ainsi que le genre des participants étaient contrôlés. Cependant, les traits psychopathiques étaient associés à une meilleure détection spécifique du mensonge et à une moins bonne détection spécifique de la vérité. En d’autres termes, les traits psychopathiques semblent être liés à une perception accrue de mensonge de façon générale. Aucun effet modérateur n’a été identifié en fonction du genre des participants. Toutefois, une relation négative entre la détection du mensonge et les traits psychopathiques a été observée chez les femmes, tandis qu’aucune relation n’a été constatée chez les hommes. Nos résultats ne contredisent pas les théories évolutionnistes sous-tendant nos hypothèses initiales. Au contraire, la perception d’autrui comme étant malhonnête et menaçant peut être considéré comme un avantage lorsqu’elle est associée aux caractéristiques propres à la psychopathie. Cette thèse contribue à éclaircir le lien entre la psychopathie et la détection du mensonge, tout en permettant de contribuer empiriquement à différentes théories évolutionnistes. / Psychopathy is often mistakenly associated with criminality, while up to 8 % of the general population may exhibit elevated psychopathic traits. Recently, there has been a surge in research attempting to apply evolutionary theories, such as natural selection, to psychological processes and personality. Evolutionary psychologists seek to explain the prevalence of psychopathy in the general population through the adaptative nature of its traits in individuals. Characteristics of psychopathy such as low empathy, a tendency for manipulation, lying, and impulsivity may enable individuals to exploit the rest of society and appropriate various resources. Additionally, their ability to disregard emotions could provide an advantage in detecting deception, particularly in high-emotion situations. The present thesis aims to provide an up-to-date literature review on different evolutionary theories explaining psychopathy as an adaptation to the environment. Furthermore, it seeks to demystify the relationship between deception detection and psychopathic traits by addressing several methodological limitations of previous studies. Drawing inspiration from evolutionary theories of psychopathy and Lyons et al. (2013), we hypothesized that psychopathic traits would facilitate detection of high-emotion deception, with this relationship being more pronounced in men than in women. To test these hypotheses, we collected data from 504 participants, consisting of 333 females (65.9 %) and 163 males (32.4 %) from the general population. The results indicate no association between the intensity of psychopathic traits and the ability to detect deception when controlling for age and gender of participants. However, psychopathic traits were associated with better specific deception detection and poorer specific truth detection. In other words, psychopathic traits appear to be linked to an overall heightened perception of deception. No moderating effects were identified based on participants' gender. However, a negative relationship between deception detection and psychopathic traits was observed among women, while no relationship was found among men. Our results are not contradictory to the evolutionary theories underlying our initial hypotheses. Rather, perceiving others as dishonest and threatening can be considered an advantage when combined with characteristics inherent to psychopathy. This thesis contributes to a better understanding of the link between psychopathy and deception detection, while empirically contributing to various evolutionary theories.

La transmission intergénérationnelle de la violence envers les enfants et les perceptions reliées aux expériences personnelles de violence dans l’enfance ont été peu étudiées auprès de la population générale et encore moins auprès des pères. L’objectif de la présente étude est de déterminer le lien entre, d’une part, la fréquence rapportée de la violence physique sévère vécue dans l’enfance et la légitimité perçue de cette violence et d’autre part, la violence physique mineure et psychologique envers les enfants au sein de la famille actuelle de 204 pères québécois. Les données sont issues de l’enquête sur la violence familiale dans la vie des enfants du Québec réalisée en 2004 par l’Institut de la Statistique du Québec. Il y a un lien significatif entre la fréquence rapportée de la violence physique sévère vécue dans l’enfance et sa légitimité perçue, ainsi qu’avec la violence envers les enfants dans la famille actuelle des pères. Les pères rapportant avoir souvent ou très souvent vécu de la violence physique sévère dans l’enfance ont actuellement des enfants qui vivent plus de violence psychologique que ceux qui en ont parfois vécu. Plus les pères considèrent la violence physique sévère vécue dans l’enfance comme méritée, plus leurs enfants vivent de la violence psychologique. Enfin, les enfants des pères qui considèrent la violence subie comme parfois méritée vivent moins de violence physique mineure que ceux des pères qui la considèrent comme souvent ou très souvent méritée. Les implications pour la recherche et la pratique sont discutées. / Intergenerational patterns of violence against children and perceptions of childhood abuse have not been studied a lot among general population or fathers. The objective of the present study is to determine the link between frequencies of childhood severe physical violence and its perceived legitimacy (first), and minor physical and psychological violence against children in actual family (second) in a sample of 204 fathers from Quebec. Results indicate a significant link between frequencies of childhood severe physical violence and its perceived legitimacy, and violence against children in actual family. Fathers who have often or very often lived childhood severe physical violence have children who suffer more psychological violence than fathers who have lived it sometimes. The more fathers think that childhood violence was deserved, the more their children suffer psychological violence. Finally, children of fathers who think that childhood severe physical violence was sometimes deserved suffer less minor physical violence than those of fathers who think that it was often or very often deserved. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

<p>This thesis explored the epidemiology of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and different aspects of the disorder. Firstly, we investigated the lifetime prevalence of traumatic experiences and PTSD in the general adult population in Sweden and evaluated the impact of different trauma types, trauma frequency, and perceived distress. The results show that traumatic experiences are common and PTSD is not rare; roughly one out of ten traumatic events results in PTSD, with a 5.6% lifetime prevalence. The female/male ratio is 2:1. The risk for PTSD increases considerably with a high trauma-associated emotional impact. The distressing impact of a given trauma appears to be higher in women than in men, indicating an increased vulnerability in women. Secondly, we hypothesized that traffic road accidents (TRA’s) are one of the most prevalent types of traumatic events in Swedish society; therefore, we examined the impact of event and response characteristics associated with TRA’s on PTSD development. The data demonstrate that of those who had experienced a TRA (n=1074, 58.9%), 6.1% reported lifetime PTSD. TRA’s associated with fatal accidents and injury to oneself and related to high distress more than double the risk for PTSD. Thirdly, we compared the relative merits of the DSM-IV’s three-factor solution for PTSD symptoms to alternative models. We found that the symptomatology is equally well accounted for using all factor analytic models as yet presented in the literature; the DSM-IV, we found, provides as good a fit to data as other models. Fourthly, we examined the neurofunctional correlates of PTSD symptoms and whether a treatment-induced (serotonin reuptake inhibitor - SSRI) reduction of PTSD symptoms is associated with altered rCBF during symptom provocation. Our results indicate that PTSD symptoms correlates with areas involved in memory, emotion, attention, and motor control and that SSRI treatment normalizes provocation-induced rCBF in these areas.</p>

<p>The aim with this thesis was to study cardiovascular disease and hypertension, use of drugs and health from an epidemiological perspective. Various methods - self-rated health (SRH), health related quality of life (HRQL) - the 36-item short form questionnaire (SF-36) - and health utility measurements - the rating scale (RS) and the time-trade off (TTO) methods - were employed.</p><p>Data from the Swedish Adoption/Twin Study of Aging (SATSA) in 1984, 1987, 1990, and 1993 as well as a general population survey conducted in Uppsala County in 1995 were used.</p><p>Persons who have cardiovascular disease, both with and without drug treatment, were found to have a lower SRH as compared to others in the population. Longitudinal analyses showed that SRH was relatively stable over time among persons with cardiovascular disease. Both having a low SRH and having cardiovascular disease were associated with a higher mortality rate.</p><p>Hypertensives were found to have a lower HRQL than do others in the general population as measured by the SF-36. The lowest scoring was found in the general health perception scale (GH), whereas role emotional (RE) and mental health (MH) were the scales least affected by hypertension.</p><p>Nearly 20 percent of the antihypertensive drug users reported side effects.The pattern of side effects was similar to that reported in clinical trials. Both hypertension itself and the drug treatment were found to have an impact on the patient's health-state utility as measured by the RS. Comparative analyses showed that health utilities and psychometric quality-of-life instruments were only moderately correlated among hypertensives. </p><p>The results also showed that inequalities in HRQL were present with respect to several sociodemographic factors. </p><p>In summary, this thesis revealed that persons with cardiovascular disease and/or with hypertension experience poorer health than others in the population. The poor health may be caused both by the disease and/or the drug treatment. The results in this thesis also suggested that special attention and care should be directed to persons with cardiovascular disease and/or hypertension reporting ill health. This especially is important given that low HRQL can be a riskfactor for subsequent cardiovascular events or complications which in turn might result in higher mortality rate.</p>

The aim with this thesis was to study cardiovascular disease and hypertension, use of drugs and health from an epidemiological perspective. Various methods - self-rated health (SRH), health related quality of life (HRQL) - the 36-item short form questionnaire (SF-36) - and health utility measurements - the rating scale (RS) and the time-trade off (TTO) methods - were employed. Data from the Swedish Adoption/Twin Study of Aging (SATSA) in 1984, 1987, 1990, and 1993 as well as a general population survey conducted in Uppsala County in 1995 were used. Persons who have cardiovascular disease, both with and without drug treatment, were found to have a lower SRH as compared to others in the population. Longitudinal analyses showed that SRH was relatively stable over time among persons with cardiovascular disease. Both having a low SRH and having cardiovascular disease were associated with a higher mortality rate. Hypertensives were found to have a lower HRQL than do others in the general population as measured by the SF-36. The lowest scoring was found in the general health perception scale (GH), whereas role emotional (RE) and mental health (MH) were the scales least affected by hypertension. Nearly 20 percent of the antihypertensive drug users reported side effects.The pattern of side effects was similar to that reported in clinical trials. Both hypertension itself and the drug treatment were found to have an impact on the patient's health-state utility as measured by the RS. Comparative analyses showed that health utilities and psychometric quality-of-life instruments were only moderately correlated among hypertensives. The results also showed that inequalities in HRQL were present with respect to several sociodemographic factors. In summary, this thesis revealed that persons with cardiovascular disease and/or with hypertension experience poorer health than others in the population. The poor health may be caused both by the disease and/or the drug treatment. The results in this thesis also suggested that special attention and care should be directed to persons with cardiovascular disease and/or hypertension reporting ill health. This especially is important given that low HRQL can be a riskfactor for subsequent cardiovascular events or complications which in turn might result in higher mortality rate.

This thesis explored the epidemiology of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and different aspects of the disorder. Firstly, we investigated the lifetime prevalence of traumatic experiences and PTSD in the general adult population in Sweden and evaluated the impact of different trauma types, trauma frequency, and perceived distress. The results show that traumatic experiences are common and PTSD is not rare; roughly one out of ten traumatic events results in PTSD, with a 5.6% lifetime prevalence. The female/male ratio is 2:1. The risk for PTSD increases considerably with a high trauma-associated emotional impact. The distressing impact of a given trauma appears to be higher in women than in men, indicating an increased vulnerability in women. Secondly, we hypothesized that traffic road accidents (TRA’s) are one of the most prevalent types of traumatic events in Swedish society; therefore, we examined the impact of event and response characteristics associated with TRA’s on PTSD development. The data demonstrate that of those who had experienced a TRA (n=1074, 58.9%), 6.1% reported lifetime PTSD. TRA’s associated with fatal accidents and injury to oneself and related to high distress more than double the risk for PTSD. Thirdly, we compared the relative merits of the DSM-IV’s three-factor solution for PTSD symptoms to alternative models. We found that the symptomatology is equally well accounted for using all factor analytic models as yet presented in the literature; the DSM-IV, we found, provides as good a fit to data as other models. Fourthly, we examined the neurofunctional correlates of PTSD symptoms and whether a treatment-induced (serotonin reuptake inhibitor - SSRI) reduction of PTSD symptoms is associated with altered rCBF during symptom provocation. Our results indicate that PTSD symptoms correlates with areas involved in memory, emotion, attention, and motor control and that SSRI treatment normalizes provocation-induced rCBF in these areas.

La transmission intergénérationnelle de la violence envers les enfants et les perceptions reliées aux expériences personnelles de violence dans l’enfance ont été peu étudiées auprès de la population générale et encore moins auprès des pères. L’objectif de la présente étude est de déterminer le lien entre, d’une part, la fréquence rapportée de la violence physique sévère vécue dans l’enfance et la légitimité perçue de cette violence et d’autre part, la violence physique mineure et psychologique envers les enfants au sein de la famille actuelle de 204 pères québécois. Les données sont issues de l’enquête sur la violence familiale dans la vie des enfants du Québec réalisée en 2004 par l’Institut de la Statistique du Québec. Il y a un lien significatif entre la fréquence rapportée de la violence physique sévère vécue dans l’enfance et sa légitimité perçue, ainsi qu’avec la violence envers les enfants dans la famille actuelle des pères. Les pères rapportant avoir souvent ou très souvent vécu de la violence physique sévère dans l’enfance ont actuellement des enfants qui vivent plus de violence psychologique que ceux qui en ont parfois vécu. Plus les pères considèrent la violence physique sévère vécue dans l’enfance comme méritée, plus leurs enfants vivent de la violence psychologique. Enfin, les enfants des pères qui considèrent la violence subie comme parfois méritée vivent moins de violence physique mineure que ceux des pères qui la considèrent comme souvent ou très souvent méritée. Les implications pour la recherche et la pratique sont discutées. / Intergenerational patterns of violence against children and perceptions of childhood abuse have not been studied a lot among general population or fathers. The objective of the present study is to determine the link between frequencies of childhood severe physical violence and its perceived legitimacy (first), and minor physical and psychological violence against children in actual family (second) in a sample of 204 fathers from Quebec. Results indicate a significant link between frequencies of childhood severe physical violence and its perceived legitimacy, and violence against children in actual family. Fathers who have often or very often lived childhood severe physical violence have children who suffer more psychological violence than fathers who have lived it sometimes. The more fathers think that childhood violence was deserved, the more their children suffer psychological violence. Finally, children of fathers who think that childhood severe physical violence was sometimes deserved suffer less minor physical violence than those of fathers who think that it was often or very often deserved. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Abstract Somatization is a widespread phenomenon causing subjective suffering and disability. The aim of the study was to assess somatization disorder (SD) and somatization symptoms among young adult population and their associations with sociodemographic factors, alexithymia and temperament as well as psychiatric comorbidity. Various suggestions have been presented to operationalize somatization but none of them has been shown to be superior to others. In this study two definitions were used: SD by DSM-III-R classification diagnostic criteria and "somatization" meaning four or more symptoms of the 35 symptoms of DSM-III-R SD criteria. The study population was a subsample of the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966 (NFBC 1966), consisting of cohort members living in Oulu (N = 1,609) on January 1st 1997. The NFBC 1966 is a general population birth cohort of 12,058 live-born children covering 96.3% of all deliveries in the catchment area. The best-estimated procedure was used for assessment of psychiatric morbidity including SD and somatization. Data were collected from the Finnish Hospital Discharge Register and from all available outpatient and inpatient records. Data on education were gathered from Statistics Finland. Other sociodemographic variables, alexithymia and temperament scores were drawn from questionnaires of the field study conducted in 1997 and from earlier follow-up studies. The prevalence of SD was 1.1% (N = 18). Of the subjects 6.1% (N = 97) had somatization. The female-to-male ratio was 5:1 and 6:1, respectively. SD was not recognized by any of the treating physicians, at least not documented in case notes. The observed occurrences of SD and somatization were at a level comparable with earlier international population studies. Somatization did not associate with depression or alexithymia, and neither could a characteristic temperament profile be recognized. Somatization was associated with psychological distress. These results indicate a need for training physicians to recognize SD and somatization and its comorbidity. This will have implications both for psychiatry and other medical specialties regarding collaboration and underlines the importance of liaison-psychiatry at general hospitals. The results suggest a need for more studies about the etiology and development of SD and somatization. / Tiivistelmä Somatisaatio on yleinen ilmiö, josta aiheutuu subjektiivista kärsimystä ja toimintakyvyn laskua. Tämän tutkimuksen tarkoitus oli arvioida somatisaatiohäiriön ja somatisaatio-oireilun yleisyyttä nuorilla aikuisilla sekä näiden ilmiöiden yhteyttä sosiodemografisiin tekijöihin, aleksitymiaan, temperamenttiin ja psykiatriseen sairastavuuteen. Somatisaation käsitteellistämiseksi on esitetty useita vaihtoehtoja mutta mikään niistä ei ole osoittautunut muita paremmaksi. Tässä tutkimuksessa käytetiin kahta määritelmää: DSM-III-R -diagnoosiluokituksen mukaista somatisaatiohäiriön diagnoosia tai somatisaatio-oireilua, jossa esiintyy neljä tai useampia DSM-III-R:n 35 somatisaatiohäiriön oireesta. Tutkimusaineiston muodostivat Pohjois-Suomen vuoden 1966 syntymäkohortin ne jäsenet, jotka asuivat Oulussa 1. tammikuuta 1997 (N =  1,609). Alkuperäinen kohortti koostuu 12,058 elävänä syntyneestä tutkittavasta, mikä kattaa 96.3 % kaikista synnytyksistä Pohjois-Suomessa. Niin kutsutun best-estimated -menettelyn avulla arvioitiin tutkittavien psykiatrista sairastavuutta mukaan lukien somatisaatiohäiriö ja -oireilu. Tietoa kerättiin sairaaloiden poistoilmoitusrekisteristä. Avohoidon sairauskertomustieto koottiin kattavasti. Koulutusasteesta saatiin tieto Tilastokeskukselta. Muita sosiodemografisia tekijöitä, aleksitymiaa ja temperamenttia arvioitiin vuoden 1997 kenttätutkimuksen ja aiempien seurantatutkimusten tietojen avulla. Somatisaatiohäiriön esiintyvyys oli 1.1 % (N =  18). Somatisaatio-oireita todettiin 6.1 % (N =  97) tutkittavista. Naisten osuus oli somatisaatiohäiriössä 5:1 ja somatisaatio-oireilussa 6:1. Osoittautui, että lääkärit eivät tunnistaneet somatisaatiohäiriötä, ainakaan sitä ei oltu kirjattu sairauskertomuksiin. Havaitut somatisaatiohäiriön ja -oireilun esiintyvyydet ovat sopusoinnussa aiempien kansainvälisten tutkimusten kanssa. Somatisaatio-oireilu ei liittynyt masennukseen tai aleksitymiaan eikä somatisaatio-oireilusta kärsiville tutkittavilla todettu tyypillistä temperamenttiprofiilia. Somatisaatio liittyi psyykkiseen stressiin. Johtopäätöksenä voidaan todeta, että lääkäreille tulisi tarjota koulutusta somatisaatiohäiriön ja -oireilun tunnistamisessa. On tärkeää tunnistaa somatisaatio ja siihen liittyvä oheissairastavuus. Havainnot korostavat yleissairaaloiden yhteistyöpsykiatrian ja muiden erikoisalojen yhteistyön merkitystä somatisaatiosta kärsivien potilaiden tutkimuksessa ja hoidossa. Somatisaatiohäiriön ja -oireilun etiologian ja kehittymisen selvittämiseksi tarvitaan uusia tutkimuksia.

L'évaluation des produits phytopharmaceutiques, leur mise sur le marché et la surveillance des résidus de pesticides dans les aliments sont harmonisés au niveau européen. Les estimations des expositions alimentaires a posteriori réalisées en Europe sont cependant incomplètes au regard du nombre de denrées et de pesticides évalués, et les données de consommation utilisées sont souvent anciennes. L’amélioration des connaissances sur les risques alimentaires liés aux pesticides constitue l’un des enjeux majeurs de santé publique. L’objectif de cette thèse est de construire un système national de surveillance a posteriori des expositions et des risques alimentaires afin de guider (1) d’une part les gestionnaires du risque dans le cadre de l’élaboration de leurs programmes de surveillance et des mesures préventives et correctives ; (2) d’autre part les évaluateurs du risque dans l’orientation des travaux de recherche et d’expertise en métrologie, expologie et toxicologie. Ce système de surveillance comprend deux outils complémentaires : (1) une méthode d’appréciation quantitative du risque dite « globale » basée sur quatre indicateurs chroniques et aigus actualisés annuellement à partir des résultats des derniers plans de surveillance et des limites maximales de résidus ; (2) des études pluriannuelles dites études de l’alimentation totale (EAT) dont la première EAT française sur les pesticides. Ces deux approches sont basées sur les données de l’étude individuelle et nationale des consommations alimentaires Inca 2 de l’Anses. La méthode globale annuelle intègre une échelle de priorités ayant permis de hiérarchiser les risques pour 519 pesticides. Les niveaux d’exposition estimés dans l’EAT2 sont globalement plus réalistes que ceux issus de la méthode annuelle. Cependant, les deux outils n’ont pas permis initialement d’affiner suffisamment l’évaluation pour certains pesticides. Par conséquent, la méthode a été ajustée afin de mieux gérer les résultats d’analyse censurés. Après ajustement, 14% des pesticides sont identifiés comme prioritaires en termes d’évaluation et/ou de gestion du risque (niveaux 2 à 6), compte tenu de dépassements des valeurs toxicologiques de référence. A partir des couples prioritaires pesticide/denrée, un plan d’échantillonnage est défini pour les prochains plans de surveillance. Des mesures de gestion correctives et une intensification des contrôles à la production et à la distribution sont recommandés pour 11 pesticides de niveau de risque maximal (niveau 6) en lien avec 16 couples pesticide/denrée. Au final, ce système national est plus complet et plus adapté à la population française que l’évaluation communautaire annuelle. Les résultats obtenus sont par ailleurs cohérents avec ceux de la première étude nationale de biosurveillance sur les pesticides. Enfin, la méthode globale annuelle intégrera les évolutions méthodologiques communautaires récentes pour l’évaluation des risques cumulés. / The evaluation of plant protection products, their marketing and the monitoring of pesticide residues in food are harmonized in the European Union. Nevertheless, the assessment of dietary exposure at post-regulation level is incomplete due to the small number of foods and pesticides taken into account. In addition, consumption data are often obsolete. Improving knowledge on the dietary risk of pesticide residues is one of the major challenges to public health. The aim of this thesis is to build a national system for the ex post monitoring of dietary exposure and risk to the general population in order to guide (1) risk managers in the development of their monitoring programmes and preventive and corrective measures; (2) risk assessors in guiding research and expertise in metrology, exposure assessment and toxicology. This monitoring system includes two complementary tools: (1) an annual method of quantitative risk assessment based on four chronic and acute indicators updated each year and based on the results of the latest monitoring plans and maximum residue levels; (2) multi-year total diet studies (TDS), including the first TDS on pesticide residues (TDS2). These two approaches are based on the results of ANSES’s INCA2 individual and national consumption survey. This annual method includes a 6-level risk scale that enables the prioritization of risk for 519 pesticides. The exposure levels estimated in TDS2 are in general more realistic than those of the annual method. However, for certain pesticides it was not possible to sufficiently refine exposure levels using these two tools. Consequently, the annual method was adjusted to improve management of left-censored analytical results. After adjustment, 14% of pesticides were identified as a priority in terms of risk assessment and/or risk management (levels 2 to 6), given that they exceeded the toxicological reference values. Based on priority pesticide/foodstuff pairs, a sampling plan has been established for subsequent monitoring programmes. Corrective management measures and intensified controls of production and distribution are recommended for 11 pesticides scored at maximal risk level (level 6) in association with 16 pesticide/foodstuff pairs. In the end, this national system is more comprehensive and better suited to the French population than the annual EU assessment. The results are also consistent with those of the first national biomonitoring study on pesticides. The annual method will also incorporate recent European methodological developments for cumulative risk assessment.

Aim: To examine prospectively over a period of 4 years the profile of cannabis dependence and the risk of specific dependence criteria in a community sample of adolescents. Methods: A representative community sample of 2446 young adults aged 14–24 years at baseline was followed up over a period of 4 years. Frequency of use measures and of criteria for DSM-IV dependence were assessed by standardized diagnostic interview measures (CIDI). To explore the nature of this association, frequency of use and concomitant use of other psychoactive substances was considered. Results: 30% of the sample were cannabis users. Among all users 35% met at least one dependence criterion. Most frequently reported dependence criteria among all users were withdrawal (17%), tolerance (15%), loss of control (14%) and continued use despite a health problem (13%). Even without concomitant use of other illicit drugs, 22% of low frequency users and 81% of high frequency users met at least one dependence criterion. Symptom patterns were similar in high and low frequency users. The occurrence of a dependence syndrome or of specific dependence criteria could not be attributed to the use of other illicit drugs or to comorbid nicotine and alcohol dependence. Conclusions: Regular cannabis use in adolescence is associated with the development of a dependence syndrome. This association cannot be explained by the concomitant use of other illicit substances or by comorbid nicotine and alcohol dependence.