Objective: To examine hand preference, hand skill and hand strength in university undergraduates in order to determine the most reliable index of handedness.

Method: The Edinburgh Inventory, a group test of handedness by marking dots in circles, and a standard dynamometer were used with 248 (148 female, 100 male) subjects.

Results: No statistically significant correlations were found between hand skill and strength, or between hand preference and strength. A significant correlation between skill and preference was found in the male right-handed group of 93 students.

Conclusion: It is not possible to demonstrate whether preference or skill is the better index of handedness; a standardised method for assessment of hemispheric dominance for handedness is required; in the meantime the criterion used in a specific study should be explicitly stated in any citation of that study.

Objective: To provide contemporary information on sexual behaviour and knowledge among normal Irish children, as perceived by their parents.

Method: The study was carried out in an Eastern Health Board urban Community Care Area. The parents of a random sample of all three year olds, and all seven and 12 year olds attending mainstream primary schools within the community care area formed the study population. A semi structured interview was used, covering demographic data, general play, sexual knowledge, sexual behaviour and family behaviour.

Results: A total of 233 parents participated, giving a 67% response rate. Approximately 40% of children in each age group were reported by their parents as showing interest in their own genitalia, this being significantly more common in boys. Approximately one half of three year olds were reported by parents as engaging in play with their own genitalia, this activity becoming increasingly uncommon in the older age groups. Sexual play with other children was reported by 12.5% of parents, and was significantly more likely among the three year olds and amongst boys. Explicit sexual behaviour involving older children, such as oral genital contact or attempted intercourse, were not reported for any child. Interest in genitalia of family members was very common in three year olds, while touching genitalia of family members was unusual. Approximately one third of parents had had some discussion with their older girls about pubertal bodily changes, but male adolescent bodily changes were rarely discussed. Mothers were the usual source of information on sexual matters to children of both sexes.

Conclusions: Sexual interest and exploration are common is young children, while explicit sexual behaviours which come to adult attention are unusual. Little discussion takes place between parents and older children, particularly boys, about specific aspects of reproduction including pubertal bodily changes.

Objective: To measure the level of commitment by mental health care professionals within the Eastern Health Board to the concept of community mental health.

Methods: An adapted version of the Baker-Schulberg Community Mental Health Ideology Scale was administered to a random sample of professionals (psychologists, psychiatrists, psychiatric nurses, community psychiatric nurses, social workers and occupational therapists).

Results: Psychiatrists within this study had the lowest scores indicating the least level of commitment, and were also found to focus upon extrinsic issues, such as economic barriers, as possible obstacles to the development of a community mental health service in Ireland.

Conclusion: Policy and decision making committees need to address the balance of the mental health care professionals represented on those committees.

Objective: To assess the outcome of treatment, a cross section of women from seven inpatient centres treating alcoholics were interviewed twice: as they entered treatment (n=114) and one year later (n=74) when they returned to the community.

Method: The patients were interviewed as they began treatment and 65% were traced for interviews one year later. Measures of self esteem, emotional health and drinking patterns are presented over time.

Results: Approximately one half of the women were abstinent when interviewed again and improved emotional health was related to abstinence. Of those who continued to drink many reduced their intake. A logistic regression analysis was applied to the data to explain the results. Among the major findings was the ability of therapists to predict subsequent drinking with a high degree of accuracy.

Conclusions: All of the services have abstinence as their goal. This could be challenged since at follow up only half of the women are abstinent. Controlled drinking may well be a valid objective if abstinence fails or could well be a valid objective for some patients.

Objective: Eighty one patients admitted following deliberate self-harm were assessed using a semi-structured interview. The aim of the study was to compare clinical and social profiles of the 42 patients who had committed self harm for the first time with those of the 39 who had committed self harm in the past.

Method: The patients were assessed jointly by a psychiatrist and either a community psychiatric nurse or a social worker. A description of past suicidal behaviour, socio demographic information, medical and psychiatric history were recorded. Suicide intent was assessed both from the clinical interview and rated objectively using Pierce's suicide intent scale. Psychiatric diagnoses were made using the ICD 9 classification.

Results: The entire group had experienced difficulties in sustaining relationships. This problem was significantly more widespread in repeaters with increased use of physical violence in their relationship. More patients with a previous history claimed to have death wishes at the time of self harm, and asserted that they would harm themselves again compared with patients without a previous history. Clinical predictions regarding future self harming behaviour were in line with the patient's stated intentions.

Conclusion: The persistent desire to commit self harm and more widespread relational difficulties amongst the patients with a previous history suggests a need for different treatment strategies and outcome measures for the two groups.

Objective: To investigate assertions that Celts have higher rates of alcoholism and mental illness than non-Celts.

Method: The records of 3,000 admissions to Northwick Park Hospital Psychiatric Unit, Harrow (a North West London suburban middle class borough research hospital with a strictly defined catchment area – the London Borough of Harrow: population 200,000), from June 1987 for three years under the clinical care of four consultant psychiatrists, were examined.

Results: There were 683 with non-Celtic names and 175 with Celtic names (16.7%) (data on 10 patients incomplete). 306 (35%) of non-Celts and 88 (50%) of Celts were aged under 40 years. Alcohol dependence (ICD 303) was significantly commoner (p<0.001) among the Celts (35.3%) than among the non-Celts (12.9%). There were highly significant excesses (p<0.001) of native-born Celts with ICD 303 (54%) compared with non-Celts 12.9% or with Celts born outside Celtdom (23%). Patients with Norman names tended to follow the Celts in these respects. There were no differences with respect to the prevalence of psychosis or other ICD categories among Celts and non-Celts.

Conclusion: Doctors should be aware of the high prevalence of alcoholic dependence among people with Celtic names, whether these were born in Celtic countries or not, entertain a high index of diagnostic suspicion and take preventative measures accordingly. However, we found no excess of other categories of psychiatric disorder among Celts as compared with non-Celts. Patients with Norman-derived names seemed to follow the Celts in these respects.

Objective: The aim of this study was to describe the social, physical, intellectual and psychological characteristics of juvenile delinquents in Dublin.

Method: One hundred consecutive admissions to the St. Michael's Assessment Centre between March 1,1989 and May 31, 1991 were studied. Information was gathered on a wide range of personal, family and social aspects of the delinquents' lives, together with data on their physical, intellectual and psychological profiles.

Results: The majority of subjects came from deprived social and economic backgrounds. 62% of the delinquents were below the 50th percentile for height while 21% were classified as mentally handicapped. The most common psychiatric diagnoses were socialised conduct disorder and mixed disorder of conduct and emotions. Depressive symptoms were endorsed by 12% of the boys and this subgroup tended to engage in more serious offences.

Conclusions: This retrospective study demonstrates the high degree of social, physical, intellectual and psychological disadvantage experienced by Dublin juvenile delinquents and underscores the need for further prospective studies in this poorly understood section of our society.

This study describes the uncontrolled treatment of six patients who developed an agoraphobia-like syndrome following physical illness. They all revealed danger-related cognitions associated with possible sequelae of their physical illness. Cognitive therapy based on realistic assessment of risks and a strategy to minimise them was associated with improvements that were maintained at six-month follow up. The study identifies the specificity of the danger-related cognitions and points to the need for further studies to assess the size of the problem, and the need for controlled trials to assess the outcome of the treatment.