Simmat-Durand Laurence

Social Demographer, Professor, University of Paris

Contact: laurence.simmat-durand(at)parisdescartes.fr

Résumé

Research

The future of babies newly born from mothers using psychoactive substances
Starting from a retrospective cohort of 167 new-born babies in a maternity of the Paris area, the children were followed 3 to 12 years. After several publications on the characteristics of the mothers and their pregnancies, the children’s evolution was studied, in particular with regard to their separation from their original surroundings, their schooling, their health, and their possible learning disorders.

Professionals’ images of addictions in France and in Finland
A quantitative survey was conducted in the two countries among health-center professionals to bring out their images of addictions, in an overall convergence context of psychoactive substance consumption in European countries. A thousand questionnaires were collected and they are currently being processed for the publication of comparative articles, after initial national analyses.

Suspicious infant deaths
Data was collected in the press over a period of 15 years on the violent deaths of 850 children under one year old. It is currently being analyzed, focusing initially on the description of the mothers and children in neonaticide cases.

Remission from drug addiction
I am scientific director of a research program on the processes of remission from addictive behavior based on different empirical investigations. An investigation is in progress based on questionnaires among persons who have overcome at least one addiction to a substance, using a biographical approach to explore the supporting elements and the obstacles to remission. A qualitative phase associated with an assessment of the mental health of these persons is to take place in the summer of 2013 and the data will be examined over the following years.

Latest publications