Following the classic study of Lindemann (1944) on the various forms and possible outcomes of the reaction to bereavement, little systematic work was done in this field until the last decade. Marris (1958), in a thoughtful but uncontrolled study, interviewed 72 widows whose husbands had died at least 11 months earlier, the mean lapse of time between bereavement and interview being two years and two months. Only 14 of his subjects considered themselves to have recovered completely; 31 reported a lasting deterioration in their health, and 57 reported a continuing difficulty with sleep. More recently, Parkes (1964a), in a study of patients admitted to a psychiatric hospital, has demonstrated that the number of patients whose illness followed the death of a spouse was six times greater than expected, suggesting that bereavement must be one causative factor in the development of the illness. He has also shown (Parkes, 1964b) that widows under the age of 65 consulted their general practitioner because of psychiatric symptoms more than three times as frequently during the six months after the bereavement than they had done during a control period prior to the bereavement. The consultation rate for non-psychiatric symptoms increased by nearly a half in both older and younger widows.

This is a clearly recognizable complex of internal family relationships which lies behind, and is an integral part of, the illness presentation pattern of one or more of the individual family members. It may explain many of the emotional problems experienced by children which are noted by either the School Doctors or the Child Guidance Clinics. It is routine procedure in such cases to interview the mother of the affected child, but it is not the practice to see any older generation. Only the family doctor is in a position to see the three generation complex involved.

This study is an investigation of the social class background of a randomly selected sample of young people appearing in the London Juvenile Courts; and of the relationships between their social class and sex and the number and types of offences with which they were charged.

Therapeutic community principles have in recent years become increasingly and often enthusiastically applied. They have also attracted an extensive literature, including, among many, studies by Maxwell Jones (1952 and 1962), Cumming and Cumming (1962), and the contributions to two symposia: in Boston, edited by Greenblatt, Levinson, and Williams (1957) and in this country by Freeman (1965).

It is becoming increasingly important, in the administration of psychiatric units, to single out the likely absconder from the rest of the hospital community. The following study has been embarked upon partly to outline a sketch of a hypothetical absconder, and partly to lay down a method of study which could be applied to other institutions with similar problems. The problem of absconding is of comparatively recent origin, as the “open door policy” has become generally adopted in British mental hospitals.

Males with chromatin positive Klinefelter's syndrome are observed to have one or more extra X chromosomes within their cells. Diagnosis is by buccal mucosa smear and chromosome analysis. Clinically they have delayed puberty, abnormal physique, small testicles and little facial hair. This paper presents some observed differences between Klinefelter patients who were being treated in subnormality units and other patients not having the condition but with similar I.Q.s.

Sex chromatin studies of the mentally defective have revealed a higher than average prevalence of positive sex chromatin among retarded males, and of double Barr bodies among retarded females (Prader et al., 1958; Israelsohn and Taylor, 1961; Maclean et al., 1962; Anderson et al., 1964; and others). It is not yet clear whether mentally defective women also contain an unusually large number with the XO constitution. That mild mental deficiency is a common accompaniment of an XYY constitution in males has been shown recently (Jacobs et al., 1965; Casey et al., 1966; Price et al., 1966). As yet no epidemiological studies have been reported on the XYY constitution.

It is now just over a decade since chlorpromazine came into general use in psychiatry. Insulin coma treatment is no longer popular in the treatment of schizophrenia, yet no long-term comparative evaluation has been carried out.

The value of oxypertine in the treatment of chronic schizophrenia has been the subject of several clinical trials, the results of which have been reviewed recently (Skarbek and Jacobsen, 1965). In particular a comparison of the effects of oxypertine and trifluoperazine in thirty-five schizophrenic women revealed statistically significant differences between the drugs, oxypertine showing a tendency to activate the withdrawn cases (Calwell, Jacobsen and Skarbek, 1964). An opportunity arose to study five of these patients again under controlled conditions, and it was felt that this would be useful for two reasons. First, it would show whether the response to oxypertine was repeatable, as the patients had meanwhile resumed their previous treatment. Secondly, by a detailed examination over an extended period, using a battery of tests and flexible dosage, a more exact delineation of the optimal symptomatic response to oxypertine could be made.

The past decade has seen many new drugs. With use, serious side-effects have become apparent. The need for rapid assessment and advertisement of such effects led to the formation of the ‘Dunlop Committee‘.

The study of the form and content of hallucinations remains a fascinating and intriguing one to all who are interested in psychopathology. In our present state of knowledge it provides the basis for experimental approaches to the aetiology of hallucinations. This paper is a brief review of the relationship between experimental and phenomenological approaches to the problem of hallucinations associated with organic cerebral lesions.

Observations have been made on the stereotyped behaviours of a group of autistic children by means of one-way mirrors; Hutt and Hutt (1965) systematically varied the complexity of the situations in which the children were placed and noted the incidence and severity of the stereotyped behaviours exhibited. Jones (1965) also attempted the quantification and classification of stereotyped behaviours in a group of adult schizophrenic patients. In this experiment the observer was present in the same room. In both experiments the stereotyped behaviours were shown to be responsive to social influences.

Wolpe (1958) has described the technique of treating phobias by reciprocal inhibition. The patient is encouraged to relax by appropriate procedures, and is then asked to fantasy a series of situations which he has previously arranged in order of their ability to evoke anxiety. This personal hierarchy of situations is put to him for short periods in ascending order.

Shapiro and Nelson (1955) suggested that an important factor in the cognitive impairment of psychiatric patients was a diminution of present learning ability. They devised a new test in which the subject had to learn and retain the meanings of five previously unknown words. Walton and Black (1957) developed this technique in their Modified Word Learning Test (MWLT). In this test, the patient is given the Terman-Merrill Vocabulary until he is unable to recall the meanings of ten consecutive words. He is then told the meanings of these ten words. If, immediately afterwards, he fails to give the definitions of at least six of them, the meanings of all ten words are given again, changing the wording to avoid rote learning.

This paper reports primarily the use of the MWLT (Walton and Black, 1957) on aged subjects with a variety of clinical conditions. Earlier studies by Walton (1958), Walton, White, Black and Young (1959) and Walton and Mather (1961) demonstrated that the MWLT identified over 80 per cent. of organics without any misclassification of non-organics. More recently, Orme, Lee and Smith (1964) found that 81 per cent. of organics were correctly classified, but only 69 per cent. of non-organics. Misclassification was particularly serious with schizophrenics (70 per cent.). Other reports, including Newcombe and Steinberg (1964), White and Knox (1965), have found as few as 47 per cent. of the organic group correctly classified. These recent studies cast some doubt upon the original claims of the MWLT as a diagnostic test of generalized brain damage. We hope to present further evidence on the efficiency of the MWLT; particularly on its use with elderly subjects.

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.