A sample of 190 patients, diagnosed as schizophrenic by the same psychiatrist, have been surveyed in an urban community and their clinical and social status assessed. Compared to the local population as a whole, a significantly greater proportion of the men had never married, and although the women had married at approximately the same rate as those in the general population, 25 per cent of them had been divorced by the time of the interview. Assessments of the subjects' clinical condition by the Present State Examination were analysed into four groups of syndromes. Only 27 patients showed schizophrenic or paranoid symptoms, whereas neurotic symptoms were not only prevalent but seemed to cause most of the reported personal problems. Twenty-eight patients were free of symptoms at the time of interview. The great majority of the sample (72 per cent) were being maintained on long-acting neuroleptics. These data will form the baseline to assess a monitoring system, designed to keep the local psychiatric services in touch with schizophrenic patients who might otherwise drop out of treatment.

Previous research has suggested that schizophrenic speech is less predictable than normal speech. Two experiments designed to test the suggestion are reported, both of them based on Cloze Procedure. In the first, raters were asked to predict ten passages of schizophrenic speech and ten passages of normal speech under fourth-word deletion. No difference between the two types of passage was found. In the second, a modified form of presentation was introduced which prevented raters making use of the text which follows a blank. Once again, no difference was revealed between the schizophrenic and normal passages, and this was true for both the new and traditional forms of presentation, and for both fourth-word and fifth-word deletion patterns. The investigation is discussed in the light of previous findings, and a number of suggestions concerning methodology and forms of analysis are made for future research.

Forty-five patients with obsessive-compulsive neurosis were given a specially devised structured interview with the aim of elucidating aspects of the phenomenology. Four main kinds of ritual were found to predominate: cleaning, avoiding, repeating and checking. A surprisingly large number of patients had little or no resistance to carrying out their rituals. The recognition of senselessness of a ritual was a more important criterion than that of resistance, but patients with predominantly repeating rituals did demonstrate resistance. It is proposed that a redefinition of obsessive-compulsive neurosis with less emphasis on resistance as a necessary condition may be appropriate.

Fifty cases of Korsakov's syndrome and 13 of ‘alcoholic dementia’ were identified from hospital records with the aim of examining the claim of each to be regarded as a clinical entity. Korsakov's syndrome, as diagnosed, was not homogeneous and comprised two groups. One resembled cases labelled as ‘alcoholic dementia’: the onset was gradual, the patients were older women with poorer intellectual functioning and there was a better outcome. The other group conformed to the conventional notion of Korsakov's syndrome, with preservation of intellect and a poor outcome. The combined group of gradual-onset cases and ‘alcoholic dementia’ was not entirely homogeneous. Within it were patients with ‘accelerated psychological deterioration’, others with Korsakov's syndrome superimposed on this pre-existing psychological deficit, and some with subacute confusional states.

Among 84 adoptees, 18 years of age and older, separated at birth from their biological parents and without further contact with them, alcoholism was found more frequently in those whose relatives included an individual with alcoholism or in whom heavy drinking had been noted. Adoptee alcoholism did not correlate with any other diagnosis in a biological parent.

Childhood socialized conduct disorder was significantly higher in those adoptees who later received a diagnosis of alcoholism or suspected alcoholism, and was positively, but not significantly, related to heavy drinking or alcoholism in parents.

Age of adoptee, time spent in foster care, age of biological mother at the time of the birth, socio-economic status of adoptive home, psychopathology other than alcoholism in the biological background, and psychiatric or behavioural problems in the adoptive family (parents or sibs) were all unrelated to adult alcoholism in the adoptee.

A three-month long study was undertaken of the utilization of the local psychiatric out-patient clinic by the geographically delimited population of Århus, Denmark.

Of the 307 males and 580 females contacting the clinics, 107 males and 148 females were new referrals, corresponding to 1·25 males and 1·48 females per 1,000 inhabitants 15 years or more, respectively. The ratio of treated females to males increased from 0·87 in the 15–24–year age group to 2·22 for patients 55 years or above.

Manic-depressive psychosis accounted for 43 per cent, followed by schizophrenia and other functional psychoses in males, and neuroses and other functional psychoses in females. The clinics collaborated closely with the in-patient facilities. Thus about 75 per cent were referrals from the in-patient clinics and 70 per cent of the discharged out-patients admitted.

Twenty general practice patients selected for treatment with tricyclic antidepressants were matched with an equal number of psychiatric in-patients who had been admitted to hospital for depressive illnesses. In order to assess their depressive status, the Levine-Pilowsky (LPD) questionnaire was administered to both groups. It was found that although patients from each setting reported the same degree of depressive severity, the pattern of their LPD responses differed significantly. Twice as many hospital patients were assigned to either Class A (‘non-endogenous depression’) or Class B (‘endogenous depression) compared to the general practice patients, most of whom were classified as Class C (‘non depressed’). These results indicate the importance of distinguishing between depressive severity and depressive classification when comparing patients encountered outside the hospital setting with those who are in-patients.

A comparison has been made between persons aged 50 and over dying from suicide and a matched control group of persons dying from other violent causes with respect to the incidence of malignant neoplasms and benign intracranial tumours found at autopsy. Significantly more of the suicide cases were found to have cancer, meningiomas and benign pituitary tumours. The implications of this finding and the relationship between depression and neoplasia are discussed.

Undetermined deaths in England and Wales between 1968 and 1972 did not show the same pattern of seasonal variation as suicides.

Undetermined and accidental poisoning deaths in England and Wales between 1968 and 1974 did not show the same pattern of seasonal variation as suicides by poisoning.

The reporting of suicide inquests by a provincial evening paper has been examined. Inquests on violent and youthful suicides were given more reports, larger reports and more eye-catching headlines.

This paper presents work that formed the basis of a fourth-year project at Southampton University Medical School. Thirty patients were seen prior to their first psychiatric consultation and asked about their hopes, fears and expectations. Twenty-five were seen subsequently.

The study, which is largely descriptive, shows that many patients have unrealistic expectations about various aspects of the interview, and afterwards many are dissatisfied with its outcome. The paper discusses these findings and makes some tentative recommendations.

A group of 30 manic and hypomanic patients was assessed on the Delusions-Symptoms-States Inventory and did not appear to conform well to Foulds' and Bedford's hierarchy model. Failure to fit the hierarchy was caused by lack of scores in the Neurotic Symptom Class. The relationship between delusions of Grandeur and state of Elation, which was found to be inclusive and non-reflexive, did, however, support the hierarchy model.

Two measures of extraversion were administered routinely to a group of drug dependent offenders, on admission, after six months and after one year's treatment in a therapeutic community. On admission the sample was relatively introverted. During the treatment there was a progressive move towards extraversion, and after one year's residence there was a significant change in the direction of extraversion. It is suggested that this change constitutes an important factor in the success of this type of treatment.

The paper describes the therapeutic programme of the Young People's Unit, Macclesfield. Admission is based on a therapeutic contract agreed with the youngster and family. Data on the first 150 admission to the Unit are presented. The information was collected from all referring agencies and a sample of youngsters and parents after an average period of two years since discharge. Results were similar to those of other follow-up studies of discharges from adolescent units, i.e. 78 per cent of neurotic disorders, 53 per cent of mixed neurotic and conduct disorders and 47 per cent of conduct disorders showed improvement. There was a high incidence of recurrence of the most significant presenting symptom (72 per cent). Nevertheless, referrers and youngsters showed a positive attitude to the treatment experience. The possible relationship of this to the contract system is discussed. A longer period of stay was found to correlate positively with improvement in conduct disorders. There is a need for further research into what aspects of a treatment milieu produce significant and lasting changes in conduct disorders.