Morbid jealousy can occasionally be indistinguishable from obsessive-compulsive neurosis and then be partially amenable to broad-spectrum behavioural treatment. This can involve the partner and includes (a) methods to reduce jealousy and (b) other methods where appropriate, such as social skills training, and sex and marital therapy. This pilot study describes such treatment of four jealous out-patients. Rituals improved in three patients but ruminations in only one. Of three patients who were depressed at the start of treatment, two improved in rituals and in mood. The patient who failed was poorly motivated and did not comply with treatment.

The relationship of selected pretreatment characteristics to weight gain during treatment was examined in 81 anorexia nervosa patients. Good prognostic indicators correlating positively with weight gain were: no previous hospitalizations for anorexia nervosa, a great amount of overactivity before treatment, less denial of illness, less psychosexual immaturity and the admission to feeling hunger. A perinatal history of delivery complications was associated with the poor outcome predictor of prior hospitalizations.

Data are presented from four studies which compare rates of psychological disturbance for three groups of immigrants to Britain and natives respectively. Children of West Indian and Asian parents are compared to native British children on the Rutter Teachers' Questionnaire and on rates of admission to psychiatric hospitals. Asian children have lower rates of behavioural deviance and mental hospital admissions than do British children. Children of West Indian immigrants show no more behavioural deviance in schools than do British children, but have considerably higher rates of admission to mental hospitals. The pattern for adults is remarkably similar to that shown by children, even though different definitions of psychological disturbance are used. The findings are discussed in the context of previous studies of immigrants to Britain and contemporary theories of immigrant adjustment.

A case of dependency on salbutamol inhalers has been described. This has been discussed in relation to abuse of other drugs by alveolar absorption and other effects of salbutamol. It is not known whether the dependency is due to the salbutamol itself or to the fluorinated hydrocarbons used as propellants.

Statistical and requirement difficulties encountered with existing methods of Repertory Grid Analysis are considered. A simple purpose-built method of Cluster Analysis is outlined, and its extension to the difficult problem of comparative analysis described.

Two hundred and sixty three pregnant Ugandan women and 89 non-pregnant, non-puerperal women were interviewed using a semi-structured psychiatric questionnaire. Comparison of psychiatric morbidity between the control group and matched pregnant women showed an increased frequency of psychiatric morbidity in pregnant women. Separated pregnant women were particularly at risk. No association was found between antenatal psychiatric morbidity and age, gravidity, number of co-wives or the duration of the pregnancy.

Three cases with torticollis caused by an infratentorial tumour are presented. A father and his son both had a Lindau tumour, and another patient had an ependymoma.

It is stressed that torticollis may be the predominant or only sign of an infratentorial tumour, and that torticollis should always be suspected to have an organic origin.

A group of normal women and a group of women in hospital for treatment of a neurosis but without a disorder of eating were compared with a group of anorexic patients in terms of their attitudes to weight. All subjects completed a rank order form of repertory grid. Differences in construct patterning between the anorexic patients and the other female groups could not be accounted for by social class, age or neurotic disorder. The most psychologically significant finding was a positive correlation between the constructs self at normal weight and ideal weight instead of a negative correlation which clinical experience would lead one to expect. Four explanations are proposed to account for this finding.

The life of Havelock Ellis is described; his personality and life experiences are related to the writing of his major work. Important sections of the ‘Studies' are summarized and their relevance to contemporary sexology is emphasized.

Parents of fifty children attending a child guidance clinic (clinic parents) were studied and compared with the parents of non-referred children matched on relevant parameters (control parents). The clinic parents differed significantly from the control parents on certain variables: presence of psychiatric morbidity in clinic mothers, disciplinary techniques used, attitude towards their own children and the marital relationship. There were no significant differences between the parents of the two groups in their attitudes towards their own parents. Alcoholism and sociopathy were not common among clinic fathers.

‘Include suggestions for reading which you consider to be important, memorable, relevant, unusual, informative—or whatever’, said the Book Review Editor, his own wording meeting several of these criteria. The informative literature on depression is vast, so that a comprehensive review is not to be considered. I present here an arbitrary selection of what has seemed personally useful or memorable, with a bias, for maximum information value, from each reference, to books and review articles. Apologies for the many fine works of equal quality which have been left out.

This report describes 17 cases of chlormethiazole abuse or dependence. These include one case with symptoms and signs of withdrawal and two other similar cases where undoubted dependence was combined with excessive alcohol intake. Seven other patients with alcoholism who indulged in drug-seeking behaviour involving chlormethiazole are also reported, together with a further seven abusers of various other drugs who were also discovered to be taking chlormethiazole.

Five cases of Gilles de la Tourette's syndrome occurring in the Chinese are described. The onset, course, symptomatology and family psychopathology are similar to those reported in Caucasians. On the parameters of APGAR score, psychological testing, EEG and psychiatric examination all had at least one abnormality. The response to haloperidol was uniformly good. Follow-up results showed that all were able to lead a fairly normal life after treatment. Though the cases are few in number, the findings seem to support the hypothesis that the syndrome has an organic substratum subject to psychological influences.

Testing hypotheses on classification could be made more precise by using only clinical symptoms and signs as its basis. Analyses based on a mixture of clinical, aetiological and background variables give ambiguous results since they incorporate the assumption that aetiological and symptomatological patterns are related in a one-to-one manner. A set of simplified models of possible relationships between aetiology and symptomatology is used to discuss these problems of interpretation. The clinical variables to be used for discriminant analyses may be chosen by testing for the existence of lower-order and higher-order differences between groups.

A trial was carried out over twelve months of a method for monitoring the care of a large number of schizophrenic patients in the community. The method has been demonstrated to be practical in use, economical of resources and potentially relevant to a number of chronic disorders.

The rate of first-cousin marriages among the parents of schizophrenics was compared with a control group in an isolated highly inbred Sudanese community, no significant difference being found.