In the last decade the use of disulfiram (Antabuse) has considerably altered the treatment of chronic alcoholism. However, unpleasant side-effects of headache, metallic taste in the mouth, abdominal discomfort and impotence are found in patients on maintenance treatment with this drug and deters them from taking it (4, 10). Alcohol-disulfiram reactions can be accompanied by cardiac complications or sudden death (9, 11). Despite these difficulties alcoholics who take disulfiram regularly have better abstinence records than those who do not (15). Many reasons may be postulated for these results, but we have regarded the use of disulfiram as a means of providing a period of “forced” abstinence while the alcoholic is readjusting to the demands of resuming his job, family relations, etc. During this time some insight and understanding of the nature of his difficulties may be established. The remainder of this paper describes the investigation of a new substance, Temposil, which produces a similar effect to disulfiram.

Cohen (1958) has shown that obese children have increased 17-ketogenic steroid excretion and Norval and King (1950) showed that urinary corticosteroids in normal children were closely related to their weight. Lugg and Bowness (1957) found a positive correlation between weight and 17-ketosteroid excretion in adults. Dutton (1958) found that mongol boys were about 15 per cent. over weight for their height although their height and weight were depressed for their life age.

In 1953, Twarog and Page (1) demonstrated that 5-hydroxytryptamine (serotonin) is present in relatively high concentrations in the brain. At about the same time Gaddum (2) and Woolley and Shaw (3) observed that LSD is a highly potent serotonin antagonist in such tissues as rat uterus and hypothesized that the hallucinogenic effect of LSD might be due to interference in the action of serotonin.

Woolley has repeatedly drawn attention to the possible role of serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine) in mental functioning (1, 2, 3, 4). In particular, this author has stressed the possibility that some forms of mental illness, such as schizophrenia, may be related to disorders in cerebral serotonin metabolism.

Epileptic manifestations complicating insulin coma therapy (I.C.T.) were described by Sakel in his original paper (1937). In recent years the administration of chlorpromazine to patients undergoing I.C.T. has been common practice. Lancaster and Jones (1954), however, have commented on the resulting apparent increase in the incidence of epileptic fits.

A number of recent studies of apparent movement have been designed with Kohler and Wallach's satiation theory or some similar theory of cortical processes as their basis. The work has been reviewed in some detail (4) and we shall concern ourselves here only with those studies that are both less equivocal and directly relevant to the present study.

There is no discussion in Stevens' (16) or Osgood's (14) textbooks of experimental psychology of the contribution of cortical functions to the production of visual after-images. Woodworth (19) presents a theory of after-images involving the cortex in the first edition of his book. It is not repeated in the second edition. There is, however, a large number of reported studies indicating the importance of cortical functions in the production of after-images (e.g. 1, 3, 6, 9, 11, 12, 13, 15, 17). In view of these studies it was decided to use the afterimage in a further attempt to verify or disprove the drug action hypothesis advanced by Eysenck in a previous paper (2). This hypothesis stated that stimulant drugs increased excitatory potential and decreased inhibitory potential, while depressant drugs decreased excitatory potential and increased inhibitory potential.

A review of the history and experimental findings relating to the spiral after-effect can be found elsewhere (5) and will not be repeated here. The reliability of the after-effect, the major role played by the cortex in its production and the evidence already obtained that the after-effect is modifiable in accordance with Eysenck's drug action hypothesis (2) indicated it to be a promising test in the investigation into the effects of meprobamate on perception.

In spite of the publication of Connell's monograph on amphetamine psychoses in 1958, the frequency of such states does not yet seem to be widely recognized even among psychiatrists. Nor is it fully appreciated in what unexpected settings such psychoses can occur, so that many cases must still be overlooked, masquerading for the most part as examples of paranoid schizophrenia.

Physical methods play an important part in psychiatric treatment. The roles of electroconvulsive therapy and, to a lesser extent, insulin coma therapy, are fairly well-defined and their effectiveness recognized, though different authorities qualify their recognition in various ways.

Since the introduction of chlorpromazine with its troublesome side-effects, jaundice, leucopenia, agranulocytosis, photosensivity, etc., the search for safer and more therapeutically effective tranquillizers has continued unabated. Variations of the phenothiazine derivatives based on the promazine ring have been continually introduced with the aim of increased effectiveness together with greater safety.

The purpose of this survey was to assess the abilities and present status of all the adult women classed as feebleminded who have been discharged from the Fountain Hospital. This paper is not a comprehensive assessment, but a survey of these patients' past history, together with an interim report on their rehabilitation. In the majority of cases, the present whereabouts and occupation are known by the social worker and have been re-checked over the past eighteen months in the course of normal follow-up contacts.