Recent losses occurring in the two years before onset of depression in women are distinguished from past losses occurring at any time before this. Of past losses only loss of mother before 11 is associated with greater risk of depression—both among women treated by psychiatrists and among women found to be suffering from depression in a random sample of 458 women living in London. Past loss of a father or sibling before 17 (or a mother between 11 and 17), or a child or husband, is not associated with a greater chance of developing depression. However, among patients all types of past loss by death are associated with psychotic-like depressive symptoms (and their severity) and other types of past loss with neurotic-type depressive symptoms (and their severity). It is argued that these associations probably reflect direct causal links, and a socio-psychological theory to explain them is discussed.

Fifty-six psychiatric patients were interviewed to obtain a record of life events preceding admission to hospital, using a modified version of the Schedule of Recent Experiences. Two control groups were studied for comparison: medical and surgical in-patients and a ‘normal’ population studied independently by Myers. Psychiatric patients reported a significantly larger number of events than the medical-surgical patients, who, in turn, reported significantly more events than the ‘normal’ population. There were no significant differences in the specific life event histories between groups.

Six cases are reported in which the bereaved kept the deceased's body for periods ranging from one week to ten years.

Some relevant anthropological and psychoanalytical observations are discussed. This phenomenon does not appear to have been reported in the literature of Western psychiatry.

An attempt was made to extend and cross-validate Mayo's (1969) study of ‘normals with symptoms' using the new Personal Illness measures. Groups of psychiatric patients and symptom-free normals were matched with a ‘normals with symptoms' group for age and sex. The two symptom groups were similarly matched on the number of symptoms as assessed by the Delusions-Symptoms-States Inventory. On the Personality Deviance Scales the ‘normals with symptoms' were found to be the most Extrapunitive group, the symptom-free normals had the lowest Intropunitive scores, whilst the patient group were the lowest scorers on Dominance.

The previous and subsequent convictions of all those charged with rape in 1961 were studied, together with circumstances of the criminal offence. The proportion of victims whose names were published in newspapers was high (26 per cent), and a high proportion of accused were acquitted (22 per cent). They fell fairly obviously into paedophiliac rapes of girls under 14 (30 per cent), ‘aggressive’ rapists (20 per cent) with a record of other aggressive offences, and ‘others' (50 per cent) with few if any other convictions. Various aspects of the records of these groups are considered. The paedophiles tended to have a wider age range and more often pleaded or were found guilty, and more of them received a medical disposal, rare in others. A small but similar proportion of acquitted and convicted were subsequently convicted of another rape.

Abnormal EEGs have been reported in XYY and XXY men located in psychiatric hospitals and prisons. In general, persons resident in institutions are more likely to exhibit EEG abnormalities than ‘normal’ population, and this bias of ascertainment has complicated the interpretation of these results.

The present study was conducted in Denmark. Chromosome determinations were made on 4,140 men selected from a birth cohort of 31,438 men. Twelve XYY and 16 XXY men were detected. Appropriate XY control groups were selected from the same population. The XYY men were found to have a significantly lower average frequency of the occipital alpha activity than their controls. The XYY and XXY men showed significantly more theta activity than the controls.

As a contribution to an international pool, chromosomal analysis was carried out on 30 women with anorexia nervosa. The stimulus for this study was that during the last decade nine cases have been described of coincidence between Turner's syndrome and anorexia nervosa. Of the 30 women here examined, all had normal chromosomal constitution.

A speculative hypothesis is presented which links the late development of modern concepts of schizophrenia with social and familial effects of industrialization. It is suggested that the social and family structures found historically in pre-industrial societies and currently in developing countries exert a comparatively benign effect upon patients with schizophrenia, and that these effects are lost during and after industrialization. Thus the severe and chronic forms of the illness became prominent and therefore recognized in the segregated institutions of Europe in the latter part of the nineteenth century.

Possible mechanisms are examined by which industrialization could influence the structure of communities and families and the development of individuals to produce the postulated changes in the individual's response to the schizophrenic illness. It is suggested that three major areas of interest for the identification of these mechanisms are (i) the rapid increase in size of towns and communities, (ii) changes in perinatal and infant mortality and morbidity, and (iii) changes in family structure. Some ways of testing the hypothesis and its implications are outlined.

In the present study dermatoglyphic features were studied in schizophrenics with and without positive family history of schizophrenia. It was found that the difference between normals and schizophrenics was further exaggerated in those schizophrenics with a positive family history for schizophrenia. The implications of the findings and the need for further work are highlighted.

Eye movements while watching an oscillating pendulum were recorded in 24 chronic schizophrenics and 24 matched normal controls. As others have reported previously, abnormal tracking movements were significantly commoner in the schizophrenics. However, in a series of experiments with normal subjects it was found that conditions designed to distract attention, or to produce declining arousal and attention, produced abnormal tracking movements indistinguishable from those observed in schizophrenics. As chronic schizophrenics are known to perform badly on a variety of psychomotor tasks and there is evidence that this is due to impaired attention or heightened distractibility, it seems likely that these same factors are responsible for their poor eye-tracking performance.

The dopamine hypothesis of schizophrenia proposes that schizophrenia is associated with increased brain dopaminergic function. Because dopamine is thought to stimulate the production of cyclic AMP in the brain, we hypothesized that CSF cyclic AMP would be increased in schizophrenia. Cyclic AMP in the CSF was determined in 19 schizophrenic patients who had not received neuroleptic treatment in the preceding two weeks. No significant difference could be shown between CSF cyclic AMP in these patients and CSF cyclic AMP in 10 psychiatrically normal controls.

Two cases of Capgras' syndrome in association with coarse brain disease are presented. The authors suggest that prosopagnosia (face non-recognition) may be the primary expression of a specific cerebral dysfunction which forms the basis for a delusional elaboration resulting in Capgras' syndrome.

A distinctive pattern of clinical change during eight affective episodes is reported in a rapidly cycling manic-depressive patient. After a rapid switch to near maximal intensity of affective symptoms, slow changes in symptomatology were documented by significant slopes and correlation coefficients over the course of each episode. Decreases in depression, anxiety, drowsiness, helplessness/hopelessness, anger, and sadness preceded the switches into mania; decreases in mania, euphoria, seeking others, and talking preceded the switches into depression. Psychologically important events appeared to regularly precede rapid mood switches. It is suggested that the consistent, slow clinical changes which occur during affective episodes may reflect part of an underlying rhythmic biological process and that environmental events may be capable of triggering a final common pathway for the mood switch during a vulnerable period.

The measurement of agreement between ratings of patient symptomatology by two or more psychiatrists is discussed. It is noted that coefficients which allow for possible chance agreement are to be preferred, but they involve assumptions about the way in which chance factors may operate. Assumptions which involve prior probabilities of the incidence of a symptom appear to be too stringent, and a new coefficient, called the RE coefficient, is recommended in which chance is assumed to operate in a purely random way. Binary scales are discussed in detail, but methods of dealing with scales of wider range are also referred to.

This study is concerned with the roles of doctors, nurses, occupational therapists and social workers in psychiatric hospitals, as perceived by members of these occupations. Fifty-one respondents from three psychiatric hospitals were interviewed. Information was sought concerning the ways respondents evaluate (a) occupational importance, (b) occupational competence and (c) inter-group contacts. Most respondents regarded the occupational importance of psychiatrists as being higher than that of the non-medical occupations. There was, however, disagreement among the various groups regarding their specific roles and areas of occupational competence. Existing inter-group contacts were evaluated as much less satisfactory by non-medical staff than by psychiatrists.