To test the hypothesis of an association between schizophrenia and coeliac disease, the sera of 380 chronic schizophrenic in-patients in two mental hospitals in the West of Ireland have been screened for the presence of reticulin antibodies. Antibodies were found in 26 patients. Twenty-one of these patients were further studied by proximal duodenal mucosal biopsy. None of the biopsies showed the morphological and histological features found in untreated coeliac disease. The incidence of reticulin antibodies in schizophrenic patients and controls is similar. The findings of this study lead to the rejection of the hypothesis of a positive genetic relationship between schizophrenia and coeliac disease.

Using a double-blind placebo-controlled cross-over design, the effect of equine conjugated oestrogens tablets (Premarin®) was studied in 20 women with the climacteric syndrome followed during 15 months. Sixteen women were equally improved on placebo and oestrogen. Only 2 patients had an improved sense of well-being on oestrogen and not on placebo. The psychological diagnosis was unrelated to the subjective response to oestrogen or placebo. Performance in psychological tests administered before and during treatment periods was not changed by oestrogen or placebo.

Various clinical and social measures were applied to forty long-stay schizophrenic patients before and after transfer from hospital to a residential home and similarly to twenty-five patients retained in hospital. The results are used to test specific hypotheses concerning the relationship between social changes and clinical state in chronic schizophrenia.

The 52-item Illness Behaviour Questionnaire (IBQ) was administered to 134 general practice patients of Greek, Anglo-Greek, and Anglo-Saxon origin. Responses were scored on 7 dimensions of illness behaviour labelled general hypochondriasis, disease conviction, psychological versus somatic perception of illness, affective inhibition, affective disturbance, denial and irritability. Results of a three-way analysis of variance (ethnicity, age and sex) indicated that Greek patients were significantly more likely to differ from their Anglo-Saxon counterparts on the initial 3 IBQ scales. Compared with the Anglo-Saxon group, the Greek sample showed greater hypochrondriacal concern, were more likely to manifest conviction as to the presence of serious physical disease, and took a more somatic view of illness. Anglo-Greek patients varied from one scale to another in the degree to which their responses resembled the pattern of illness behaviour reported by Greek patients. They were most similar to the latter in their hypochondriacal attitude, and least similar in their psychological perception of illness. Although the IBQ responses to the Greek sample were consistent with patterns described in other studies of Mediterranean cultural groups, it was found that relationships observed between ethnicity and illness behaviour were to some extent dependent upon age and sex.

A modified version of the Manic State Rating Scale comprising 28 items with a glossary has been tested on 16 manic patients. The scale has satisfactory inter-rater reliability and appears to be valid.

The level of mental ‘distress’ was assessed for a sample of mothers with pre-school children in Inner London. Fifty-two per cent of mothers had a moderate or severe distress problem in the 12 months prior to interview. Variables correlating with distress were identified and replicated in a second sample. Social class was not found to be related, and the question of the general relationship between social class and distress is considered.

On the basis of information abstracted from case histories, 41 patients who had experienced epileptic seizures thought to be due either to treatment with psychiatric drugs or to withdrawal from sedative drugs were compared with a control group of patients. Those who had experienced seizures were more commonly first born and had a history of post-natal brain damage. During the week preceding the seizure there had been a marked increase in drug prescribing. The implications for drug management are discussed.

The present paper outlines the number and distribution of forensic patients within one region. In addition, attitudes to both available services and existing legislation are described. Regional and national data are compared so that the results can be used by other regions which are currently planning a development of their own forensic services.

Thirty chronic bronchitic patients with severe airways obstruction were individually matched with non-bronchitic controls from the general population. The 2 groups were compared using the Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS) and the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) to assess non-psychotic psychiatric disturbance, the Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI) to assess personality traits, and the Marlowe–Crowne (M–C) scale plus the L (Lie) scale of the EPI to assess social-desirability response set. Chronic bronchitic patients were both more psychiatrically disturbed and more neurotic in personality than were their matched controls; but there were no differences between the 2 groups on the personality trait of extraversion or on measure of social desirability response set. The results are discussed in the context of both chronic bronchitis specifically and chronic illness in general, and future investigations are proposed.

Seventeen patients with hysterical fits, previously diagnosed and treated by neurologists as epileptics, were distinguished from a matched control group of 17 epileptics by 5 factors: a family history and personal history of psychiatric disorder, attempted suicide, sexual maladjustment, and a current affective syndrome.

In a large survey of subjects aged between 35 and 64, no difference was detected in the amount of psychiatric morbidity, determined by response to the General Health Questionnaire, between those with hypertension and those with normal pressure. This finding also obtained if only those subjects ignorant of their own blood pressure level were considered for the same comparison.

As a result of administration of a standardized psychiatric interview and a hostility questionnaire to 108 hypertensive and normotensive subjects of a special study, differences in the expression of hostility were demonstrated between the 2 groups. Subjects with hypertension appear to demonstrate more hostility and be less self-critical than a normotensive group. This finding could reflect the effect of recent diagnosis and treatment of hypertension or be associated with the hypertensive state itself.

Altered activities of biogenic amine-related enzymes have been reported in some studies of patients with affective disorders and chronic schizophrenia. To evaluate whether any relationship between personality variations, including non-diagnosed psychopathology, and these enzymes might occur in non-psychiatric patients, 95 young adult volunteers were studied. Higher MMPI and Zuckerman sensation-seeking scale scores were found in male, but not female, volunteers with lower platelet and plasma amine oxidase activities. Males generally exhibited negative correlations, while females had positive correlations between the psychological test scores and amine oxidase activities. In contrast to the amine oxidase results, no associations were observed between plasma dopamine β-hydroxylase activities and the personality variables.

The study was undertaken in order to test a dream-rating scale and to propose some modifications, especially for use in laboratory situations, where the effect of a given experimental factor is to be assessed on mental activity in sleep. Dreams collected from normal subjects under EEG monitoring were analysed in detail in order to establish definitions for each rating point of each dimension of the rating scale. The scoring of a second set of dreams by two judges using this scale resulted in an inter-rater agreement significantly above the level of chance agreement.

Twenty-seven symptoms of 859 treated hypertensive patients were evaluated using a self-administered questionnaire and correlated with the depression (DEP), free-floating anxiety (FFA), phobic anxiety (PHO), obsessionality (OBS) and extraversion (HYS) scores of the Middlesex Hospital Questionnaire. The psychological features were associated with 24 of the 27 symptoms, and the extent to 1which these measurements determined the presence of a symptom was calculated. DEP and FFA were correlated with most of the symptoms, PHO with weak limbs, blurred vision, slow walking pace, nocturia and a lessened interest in sex. HYS was positively associated with the frequency of sexual intercourse in men and negatively with complaints of dyspnoea, tingling in the limbs and a slow walking pace. OBS was only associated with diarrhoea.

Patterns of adult psychiatric referral, of child guidance referral and of juvenile delinquency in a metropolitan borough were examined. The 3 sets of rates showed parallel trends among the 20 electoral wards of the borough, all 3 being similarly related to socio-demographic indices. A cluster analysis technique was used to combine the 450 enumeration districts of the borough into 22 clusters defined by social characteristics rather than by geographical boundaries. Ecological correlates of treated psychiatric disorder and of delinquency, based on these clusters, were found to be similar to those derived from the electoral ward data.

The findings suggest that it may be possible to demarcate relatively small urban areas with high concentrations of psychiatric disorder, maladjustment and delinquency.

Elevated blood serotonin, perhaps secondary to reduced platelet MAO, has been reported in a group of chronic schizophrenic patients. We have failed to find elevated platelet serotonin, or any relationship between platelet serotonin and MAO either in a group of unmedicated chronic schizophrenic patients or in a group of schizoaffective patients. Possible reasons for these discrepancies are discussed.

Measures of depression and undischarged drive were obtained for 292 psychiatric in-patients. In 200 of these cases inhibition of aggression was also assessed. All patients were classified as being endogenously depressed, reactively depressed, or as suffering from non-depressive primary disorders. The latter group was subdivided into secondarily depressed and non-depressed groups. The 3 depressed groups were then compared with the non-depressed subjects in respect of drive level and inhibition of aggression.

All 3 depressed groups showed significantly higher drive level than did the non-depressed subjects. The endogenous depressives also inhibited significantly more of their aggression than did the non-depressed subjects. These results are consistent with a drive inhibition theory of depression. However, while endogenous depression seems to be associated more specifically with the inhibition of aggression, reactive depression may be associated rather with the inhibition of drive generally.

The method is described of a point-prevalence survey of minor psychiatric morbidity among a sample of healthy community residents. The General Health Questionnaire was used as the sole means of case identification. The demographic characteristics of the sample were compared in detail with those of the total population. The factors mainly responsible for sample bias were difficulty with the English language, the varying degree of personal contact made with residents, and the difficulty in contacting the employed population during working hours. The overall response rate of the survey was 66·%. The demographic groups found to be at significantly higher risk for minor psychiatric morbidity included women, the young, non-British migrant women, and lower social class men.

This paper presents a review of the literature on the effects of maternal narcotic addictions upon the foetus and newborn infant. Six children born to ‘registered’ narcotic addicts were studied, and particular attention was paid to any signs of narcotic withdrawal that might occur after birth. Although all the mothers took heroin or methadone regularly up to the time of delivery, minor physical signs which might have been considered part of the withdrawal syndrome occurred in only one baby. The absence of major withdrawal signs found in this study contrasts with previous findings. The reasons for these differences are discussed, and the implications of these observations for the management of the pregnant narcotic addict and her newborn infant are considered.

A survey of more than 6000 school children in 1961 established norms for symptomatology and behaviour at ages 5–15. A follow-up to 1968 identified all children from the survey attending a child guidance clinic or appearing in court within that time. Those thus identified contained a significantly high proportion of boys who were reported as having more than 3 deviant items (i.e. occurring in approximately 10% of subjects in 1961). Specific health and behavioural items were found to have been reported in 1961 in proportions which were significantly different for children later appearing in child guidance clinic from those appearing in court. The amount of concern expressed by their parents over psychological and behavioural items distinguished court from clinic boys, while the concern shown by parents over items of physical health showed little difference in these 2 groups.