Although the relationship between childhood behaviour and adult adjustment is often presented as established fact, relatively few non-retrospective studies have actually examined this perceived association. This paper presents a description of the attempt to establish the feasibility of tracing children after a lapse of 15 years and suggests that this may present fewer insuperable difficulties than might be imagined.

The Clinical Research Centre was established by the Medical Research Council as a major focus for patient-orientated research and as the clinical counterpart of the National Institute for Medical Research at Mill Hill which for 40 years has been the Council's largest establishment for basic research. In cooperation with the Department of Health and Social Security the Council embarked upon the Northwick Park project in which the Clinical Research Centre is closely integrated with a district general hospital – Northwick Park Hospital – built at the same time, and designed to serve the population of the Harrow Health District. Across each of the major specialties the Clinical Research Centre has Divisions with varying degrees of involvement in patient care. While there are 600 (District) beds allocated to local District needs, there are further 200 (National) beds which, in principle, are available for investigating and treating patients from outside the District admitted for research purposes. In practice, the extent to which research takes place on patients admitted for special investigations and, on the other hand, on patients admitted from the District as part of the service commitment, varies widely with specialty. In psychiatry it is predominantly the case that patients under investigation have been admitted from the District.