The way in which psychiatric services for adolescents in the UK are developing will be affected by recent changes in the organisation of the National Health Service.

The history of these services, and the different opportunities for development are reviewed.

Ways in which high-quality clinical care can still be provided are indicated.

Adolescent psychiatric services should be judged on their ability to provide such care, not merely on their ability to survive.

Trends and availability of the methods used for suicide in Finland were analysed in order to base proposals for prevention of access to methods.

Finnish suicides from 1947 to 1990 were analysed by sex, age, time period and suicide method using confidence intervals for rates, χ2 test for trends and suicide risks for different medicines.

Suicide rate by parathion, a highly lethal pesticide and commonly used for suicide in the 1950s, decreased after its availability was restricted, but this was offset by an increased rate by other methods. Since 1982, the suicide risk for antidepressants and neuroleptics increased coincident with their availability, although that for barbiturates remained stable but high despite a reduction in availability. Suicide risk for antidepressants other than tricyclics decreased despite increased availability.

Restriction of a method reduces its use for suicide, but other methods tend to replace it. Restrictive measures should focus on some specific situations. Antidepressants other than tricyclics are recommended for the treatment of suicidal depressive patients.

This exploratory study seeks to generate new hypotheses about the relationship between obstetric complications and schizophrenia.

The British Perinatal Mortality Survey represents 98% of all births during one week in March 1958 in Great Britain. Present State Examination (PSE), Catego diagnoses of narrowly defined schizophrenia (n = 49), broadly defined schizophrenia (n = 79), affective psychosis (n = 44) and neurosis (n = 93) were derived from case notes for all cohort members. The remainder of the cohort, surviving the perinatal period, acted as controls (n = 16 812). Variables in the British Perinatal Mortality Survey were grouped into five categories: the physique/lifestyle of the mother (including demographic characteristics), her obstetric history, the current pregnancy, the delivery and the condition of the baby.

There were 7/17 significant differences in maternal physique/lifestyle and obstetric history between the births of schizophrenics and controls, compared to 4/40 comparisons of somatic variables relating to pregnancy, birth and the condition of the baby. This compares with 4/17 and 7/40 for affective psychotics and a total of 4/57 differences for all categories of variables when neurotics were contrasted with controls.

The purported increased risk of obstetric complications in schizophrenics may result from the physique/lifestyle of their mothers.

Sixty-eight patients with seasonal affective disorder participated in a 10 000-lux light treatment study in which two questions were addressed: do response rates differ when the light is applied at different times of the day and does short-term rank ordering of morning and evening light influence response rates?

Three groups of patients received a 4-day light treatment: (I) in the morning (8.00–8.30 a.m., n = 14), (II) in the afternoon (1.00–1.30 p.m., n = 15) or (III) in the evening (8.00–8.30 p.m., n = 12). Two additional groups of patients received two days of morning light treatment followed by two days of evening light (IV, n = 13) or vice versa (V, n = 14).

Response rates for groups I, II and III were 69, 57 and 80% respectively, with no significant differences between them. Response rates for groups IV and V were 67 and 50% respectively; this difference was not significant and these percentages did not differ significantly from those of groups I and III.

The results indicate that the timing of light treatment is not critical and that short-term rank ordering of morning and evening light does not influence therapeutic outcome.

The aim was to determine the extent, characteristics and timing of suicide in Oxford University students.

Students who died from suicide or undetermined cause between October 1976 and September 1990 were identified through University records and individual colleges. Information about each student was sought from coroners, college staff, general practitioners and hospital case notes.

There were 21 suicides (16 men and 5 women) and one open verdict (female). The observed number of suicides (0) was greater than the number expected (E = 11.09) on the basis of mortality statistics for England and Wales (O/E = 1.89; 95% CI 1.17 to 2.90). When deaths due to undetermined cause were included, however, the difference between O and E (17.03) was much reduced (O/E = 1.29; 95% CI 0.81 to 1.95). There was no evidence of an association with the Finals examination but two-thirds of the students had been worried about academic achievement or their courses. Nearly half appeared to have had a psychiatric disorder (mostly depression).

The much publicised apparent excess of Oxford University student suicides may be partly artefactual. Measures for preventing student suicides include careful induction upon arrival at university, means of alleviating academic stress and worries, and readily available and closely associated student counselling and psychiatric services.

This paper examines the evidence that rates of anorexia nervosa have increased over time.

Epidemiological studies that have provided time trends in incidence rates in specific countries or psychiatric registers and prevalence surveys were reviewed to assess whether or not prevalence estimates are higher in the most recent studies.

Estimated trends in incidence rates showed an increase but no study ruled out plausible alternative explanations. Studies showing no upward trend were as numerous and were generally based on larger samples. Analysis of 29 cross-sectional surveys conducted over the last 25 years indicated that the median prevalence rate was 1.3 per 1000 females. There was no indication that more recent surveys yielded higher prevalence rates.

Anorexia nervosa remains a rare disorder and there is no evidence of a secular increase in its incidence.

The aim was to investigate the secretion profile of melatonin and seasonal affective disorder before and after treatment with fluoxetine.

A six-week case-controlled study with repeated overnight blood sampling was conducted. Ten patients fulfilling the criteria for major depressive disorder, seasonal type, with a 29-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) score of at least 20 were compared with ten age- and sex-matched healthy controls in a clinical laboratory. The effects of fluoxetine (20 mg/day) on the HDRS and melatonin concentration were measured.

Fluoxetine significantly reduced melatonin levels in both groups. There was no significant difference in melatonin secretion between the groups.

The effect of fluoxetine differs from tricyclics and fluvoxamine, both of which increase melatonin.

In previous studies cognitive impairment in depressed elderly in-patients tends to be associated with a late onset of depression. This study tests the hypothesis that cognitive impairment is associated with depression only in elderly individuals with no history of psychiatric illness.

We investigated an age-stratified sample of 4051 elderly people living in the community, aged between 65 and 84 (AMSTEL). The relationship between depression (GMS-AGECAT diagnosis) and scores on the Mini Mental State Examination was studied in subjects with and without a reported psychiatric history (CAMDEX questionnaire).

Low MMSE scores (MMSE ≤ 25) were only associated with depression in subjects with no psychiatric history (young/old: OR = 2.75, 95% CI = 1.83, 4.19; old/old: OR = 2.21, 95% CI = 1.61, 3.03).

We concluded that the combination of cognitive impairment and first-episode depression in elderly individuals may indicate cerebral deterioration. Depression as such may not be associated with cognitive impairment.

It is important to determine the optimal manner of categorising eating disorder patients so as to aid in the understanding of their specific psychopathological state.

We compared subgroups of eating disorder patients divided according to different sets of factors, using a structured interview which elicits the specific psychopathological features of these illnesses. The patients, comprising 116 consecutive women admitted to two university-affiliated eating disorder clinics, were grouped according to DSM–III–R criteria, clinical presentation (purging, binge eating), nutritional status, and age.

The clearest separation of groups was afforded by the clinical dimension of purging as opposed to not purging. This was superior to DSM–III–R criteria. Other systems, such as presence of binge eating, and various levels of nutritional status and of age, were clearly inferior.

The presence or absence of purging behaviour appears to offer the most heuristic means of categorising eating disorder patients with respect to their specific psychopathological state.

In previous studies, dementia was linked to a family history of dementia and Down's syndrome. This study tested the hypothesis that late-life depression accompanied by cognitive impairment in elderly individuals with no history of psychiatric illness is also associated with these family histories.

We investigated an age-stratified sample of 4051 elderly people in the community aged 65–84 (AMSTEL). The relationship between family history (CAMDEX questionnaire) and depression (GMS-AGECAT diagnosis) was studied.

A family history of mental health problems was associated with all subtypes of depression. Family history of dementia was associated with depression in subjects with a psychiatric history, but a family history of Down's syndrome was only associated with the combination of depression and cognitive impairment in subjects with no history of psychiatric illness.

The heritability pattern confirms the concept of a dementia-related subtype of late-life depression.

The season of birth phenomenon in schizophrenia was reexamined in relation to place of birth, in order to test the hypothesis that a seasonal factor might operate preferentially among those who were urban-born.

The seasonal distribution of births was examined among 3253 patients in two case registers having an ICD–9 diagnosis of schizophrenia and compared with the distribution of births among the normal population born in those catchment areas over the same period; those subjects born in population centres greater than 50 000 were defined as urban-born.

Patients who were urban-born showed an excess of winter births relative to controls that was absent among their rural-born counterparts. On comparing patient groups, those who were urban-born were more likely to be born in the winter, while those who were rural-born were more likely to be born in the spring; this urban–rural distinction was confined essentially to female patients.

These findings might be accommodated most readily in terms of a spatially as well as seasonally varying environmental factor that is associated with urbanicity and to which female offspring are more vulnerable.

Abnormal cerebral anatomical lateralisation has been reported in schizophrenia and may implicate anomalous neurodevelopment in the aetiology of this disease. A popular recent hypothesis has predicted that such disturbances in normal lateralisation should be especially apparent in the morphology of the temporal lobes.

A temporal cortical region lying in the plane of the Sylvian fissure – known as the planum temporale – exhibits pronounced leftward asymmetry in normal right-handed males. We compared lateralisation of the planum temporale in schizophrenic and control males using MRI surface-rendering morphometry of the supratemporal cortex.

Contrary to the lateralisation hypothesis, normal patterns of leftward planum asymmetry were detected in both the schizophrenic and control groups. Schizophrenics and controls also exhibited a predicted symmetry in the bilateral areas of Heschl's gyrus, a supratemporal cortical structure immediately anterior to the planum.

These data do not support the notion that neurodevelopmental mechanisms of cerebral asymmetry are abnormal in schizophrenia.

Depression and alcohol dependence are frequently found to co-exist but the relationship between these disorders requires further elucidation. This study tested several hypotheses related to the relevance of whether the diagnosis of depression was made before admission or after detoxification in the current episode for those with alcohol dependence.

The Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia (SADS) was administered to obtain Research Diagnostic Criteria (RDC) on 82 randomly selected alcohol dependent in-patients. Alcohol-related (Severity of Alcohol Dependence Questionnaire (SADQ), alcohol consumption and alcohol-related problems), socio-demographic variables and treatment for depression were assessed.

For the episode of drinking which led to admission, a diagnosis of major depression was found in the majority of patients (67%). Once detoxification from alcohol took place, only the minority (13%) met criteria for major depression.

It is suggested that depression is largely associated with the episode of drinking which led to admission in patients who are dependent on alcohol and may be due to the effect of chronic alcohol intoxication. Socio-demographic and alcohol-related characteristics appear to bear little relation to the presence of depression. Clinicians exercise appropriate judgement in not prescribing antidepressant treatments to patients whose depression may remit with abstinence from alcohol.

Previous research in the elderly has linked threatening life events with depression. Dementia sufferers are known to be sensitive to stressful changes in their daily life such as relocation. This study investigates whether threatening life events are associated with depressive symptoms in dementia sufferers.

Using the Life Events and Difficulties Schedule, this study examined life events before admission in a group of 70 dementia patients compared with two control groups: dementia sufferers in the community and mentally fit elderly people matched for age and sex.

Life events with severe threat were not significantly more frequent in the dementia patients than in two control groups. However, depressive symptoms in the dementia sufferers were significantly associated with independent severe life events. This strong association was maintained when a multivariate analysis was used to control for the effects of other social factors and severity of cognitive impairment. This association appears to be specific to the threat aspect of life events since there was no association between depressive symptoms and events relating to change in the social environment.

In dementia sufferers, threatening life events are associated with depressive symptoms. This means that dementia sufferers are responsive to stress in the same way as cognitively intact individuals, and clinicians need to be more aware of the social influences on them.

The study focuses on the prevalence of dementia in the oldest old.

A community sample (n = 402) of the oldest old in Munich (≥ 85 years) was assessed with different methods. Four instruments and a clinical examination were used for case identification: (a) the Geriatric Mental State Interview (GMS-A); (b) the Structured Interview for the Diagnosis of Dementia (SIDAM); (c) the Global Deterioration Scale (GDS); and (d) the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE). The clinical examination was performed by the interviewing physicians, who made their diagnoses according to ICD–10 and DSM–III–R.

The structured interviews (GMS-A: 25.4%; SIDAM/SISCO: 28.0%; SIDAM/DSM–III–R: 27.8%; SIDAM/ICD–10: 16.1 %) gave lower point prevalence rates of dementia than physicians' clinical diagnoses (43.1 %). The rates were 21.2% based on the MMSE. Depressive syndromes and anxiety syndromes were the most frequent psychiatric disturbances associated with dementia in the very old.

Dementia rates were high in the oldest old, showed an increase with age but no sex differences. Interview methodology has a major impact on results.

It has been suggested that the dimensions of cerebral ventricles are a risk factor for poor outcome in psychotic illness.

A cohort of 140 patients with functional psychoses of recent onset who had undergone CT scanning, were followed up for an average of 46 months and assessed on six dimensions of course and outcome of illness.

Left and right sylvian fissure volumes and, to a lesser extent, third ventricular volume predicted negative symptoms and unemployment over the course of follow-up, the latter association being mediated by poor cognitive functioning. There was a significant linear trend in risk over the distribution of sylvian fissure volumes in the cohort, and associations were especially evident in schizophrenic patients. No associations were found with global severity of illness, duration of hospital stay, homelessness, or affective symptoms.

These findings support the notion that dimensions of the cerebral ventricles are a continuous risk factor for some measures of outcome in the functional psychoses.

The Perth Community Stroke Study (PCSS) was a population-based study of the incidence, cause, and outcome of acute stroke.

Subjects from the study were assessed initially, by examination and interview, and at four- and 12-month follow-ups to determine differences in prevalence of depression between the sexes and between patients with first-ever and recurrent strokes.

The prevalence of depressive illness four months after stroke in 294 patients from the PCSS was 23% (18–28%), 15% (11–19%) major depression and 8% (5–11 %) minor depression. There were no significant differences between the sexes or between patients with first-ever and recurrent strokes. With a non-hierarchic approach to diagnosis of those with depression, 26% of men and 39% of women had an associated anxiety disorder, mainly agoraphobia. Nine per cent of male and 13% of female patients interviewed had evidence of depression at the time of the stroke. Twelve months after stroke 56% of the men were still depressed (40% major and 16% minor), as were 30% of the women (12% major and 18% minor).

The prevalence of depression after stroke was comparable with that reported from other studies, and considerably less than that reported from in-patient and rehabilitation units.