Création d’une consultation psychiatrique ouverte aux préparationnaires du 5e et du 6e arrondissement de Paris : retour d’activité sur l’année 2017–2018

Abstract

Part of the French post-secondary education system is the Classes Préparatoires aux Grandes Écoles (High School Preparatory Classes) which consists of two intensive years (or three years sometimes) to pass the entrance examination of the Grandes Écoles. Grandes Écoles are highly selective, elite, and prestigious institutions [10]. The difficulties for these students are a higher stress (succeed the entrance examination), lack of time (all their time is dedicated to studies). The access to public psychiatric health system depends on where you live. Due to their schedule, they spend most of their time in the high school and they can’t consult in the psychological centre whom they depend [9]. In these conditions, in December 2017, public psychiatric care of the 5th and 6th districts of Paris created a psychiatric consultation in one high school opened to the students in Classes Preparatoires which signed a convention with the psychiatric ward. ObjectivesThis study aims to debrief the activity and the student profiles in the first year of this consultation. Patients and methodsThe patients are composed of students registered in Classes Préparatoires from the 5th and 6th district of Paris and who came to the psychiatric consultation, aged from 16 to 19 years old and referred by school nurses, school doctors, psychiatric ward or student himself. Retrospective study based on the activity of the consultation and medical files of psychiatrics consultations between December 2017 and July 2018. ResultsFifteen students consulted with a mean of 5.2±2.9 consultations per students, eleven of them were oriented by school nurses. Eleven students benefited from a regular follow-up or an “in case of need” consultation. Five students had already received a psychotropic drug before the consultation; at the end of the year, ten of them received medication. The most prescribed category of medication are antidepressants and anxiolytics with seven patients apiece. The most represented disorders are a major depressive disorder (41%), adaptative disorder (29%), anxiety disorder (12%). Four students stopped their studies in the high school during the academic year. Two students needed to be hospitalized in the psychiatric ward of the district, they continued their education in their high school after hospitalization. ConclusionThe consultation for the Classes Préparatoires aux Grandes Écoles allowed an access to a psychiatric offer next to the place those students spend most of their time, without going to an emergency structure and with a shorter waiting time compared to the psychological centre in public health system. This consultation enables the evaluation, the follow-up and the orientation of the students, including the hospitalization when it is needed but also to sustain some students in their studies. In views of requesting a psychotherapy and the usual waiting time in the psychotherapeutic centre for students which already exist, there is important need to provide increased resources for these students.