Psychiatric Semiology
Descriptive Psychopathology

“Visualization is a way to represent data, an abstraction of the real world,
in the same way that the written word can be used to tell different kinds of stories”
Data Points, Yau 2013

This website is a support to the letter entitled "The domestication of psychiatric symptoms: a proposal for the graphical visualization of the thesaurus semeioticus in adults" by Jean-Arthur Micoulaud-Franchi (Univ. Bordeaux), Vincent P. Martin (Univ. Lorraine) and Clélia Quiles (Univ. Bordeaux). It is a response letter to the article Prioritization of Psychopathological Symptoms and Clinical Characterization in Psychiatric Diagnoses: A Narrative Review by Leucht S, van Os J, Jäger M, Davis JM published in JAMA Psychiatry on 2024 Sep 11.

(A) Semiology from the AESP

The AESP is the French association for the teaching of psychiatric semiology. It has coordinated the reference textbooks for the teaching of psychiatric semiology in all the university medical cursus in France. The AESP has inventoried 244 symptoms identified as the most relevant to teach medical students how to make a diagnosis of a psychiatric disorder. The semiological terms have been hierarchized according to the organizations and tables of the main reference manuals (cf. the website of AESP). This organization is the most consensual for the teaching of psychiatric semiology in France.
Regarding the graphical organization, we followed the guidelines of Yau 2013 ("Data Points", 2013). Based on the excel source file, we plotted a sunburst. This graphical represenation is symmetrical and contains only one hierarchical unidirectional and multiscale element (from the broader category to the individual symptom). Moreover, each terminal symptom is represented by the same angle.

[Interactive figure] Try to click on the figure ! (click on the center to go back)

Fig.A - Graphical representation of AESP's psychiatric semiology appartus. [Download high-res image]

(B) Semiology from the AMDP

The AMDP (Association for Methodology and Documentation in Psychiatry) has written an interview guide including 100 mental symptoms and 40 somatic symptoms [Stieglitz et al. 2017]. These symptoms are rated as absent, mild, moderate, or severe. The graphical organization is the same the previous figure. The source excel file is available [here]

Try to click on the figure !

Fig.B - Graphical representation of the AMDP symptoms. [Download high-res image]