We report the case of an 11-year-old girl who had been living with only her mother, a woman with chronic schizophrenia. The girl had been caught shoplifting with her mother, and had a long history of non-attendance at school. The case emphasises that adult psychiatrists should always consider the impact of chronic parental psychiatric disorder on children, particularly in one-parent families.

A patient with early-onset Huntington's chorea is described. The diagnosis had been overlooked during previous contacts with psychiatric services because there was no family history, and features typical of the adult disease were absent. Distinctive findings on CT scan and electroencephalography were observed.

Two female patients with longstanding bipolar affective disorder demonstrated de Clérambault's paradigm of erotomania during the euthymic phase of their illness. Although a diagnosis of schizophrenia or paranoid disorder is often given, a review of the literature shows that many cases have features of a major affective disorder, probably bipolar affective disorder and its spectrum.

A suicide attempt with a gun resulted in left frontal lobe damage in a 19-year-old obsessive man. While intelligence did not suffer and no frontal lobe syndrome emerged, the patient's obsessive rituals were significantly reduced