In a previous study (Willcox et al., 1965), we reported the results of urine tests on a series of psychiatric out-patients, done with the aim of determining whether the patients were taking their pills as prescribed. We now report a similar study on in-patients. It is a matter of clinical experience that some psychiatric in-patients avoid taking their pills as prescribed, for in-patients who take an overdose in a suicidal gesture often say that they 'saved up’ their prescribed pills in order to do this. There are many other reasons, such as the occurrence of unpleasant side-effects or a belief that the pills are not doing any good, which might lead in-patients to avoid swallowing their pills at medicine-time, and though we should not expect to find this happening as often in in-patients as in out-patients yet the proportion of cases in which this occurs and whether it occurs more often with one type of drug than another are matters of general concern.

This paper reports a series of experiments with a short self-rating scale derived from Zung (1965). Conceivedas a measure of depression, its value in a psychiatric setting has been confirmed. It also shows promise of identifying neurotic disability in a wider context, whether as an epidemiological tool or as a rapid screening device in general medicine.

There have been two surveys of the patient population of Glenside Hospital, Bristol, in recent years—Cooper and Early (1961), and Early and Magnus (1966). Since the 1961 review, a considerable number of patients admitted have become “chronic”, i.e. have remained continuously in hospital for over one year. An attempt to enquire into this problem has been made.

Meclofenoxate (Lucidril), a synthetic substance related to plant auxins, is claimed to cause an increase in the glucose uptake of the mouse brain, and to influence the EEG tracings of rats deprived of oxygen (Nickel, et al., 1963). Other animal experiments show Meclofenoxate to protect rabbit brains against experimental anoxia induced with nitrogen (Dereymaeker et al., 1962), and against histoxic anoxia induced by potassium cyanide (Nakajima et al., 1964).

The foundation of the new Department of Psychiatry in the University of Birmingham in January, 1962 was followed by the development of a post-graduate training scheme in psychiatry operating within the area administered by the Birmingham Regional Hospital Board. It was clear at the outset that the Regional psychiatric hospitals were looking to the new Department for positive help in post-graduate training and research and that its creation was accompanied by an air of expectancy. Because, judging from enquiries received, the scheme has excited some attention from outside the Region, it would seem appropriate to give an account of how it operates.