Results of studies of a large number of long-standing schizophrenic illnesses are discussed. On an average, schizophrenia showed no further change for the worse after a duration of five years, but rather a tendency to improve. The success and limitations of modern therapy were statistically determined. Many recovered schizophrenics continued to do well even without medication and social care. As a rule, schizophrenics had no endocrine pathology and endocrine patients were not schizophrenic. Neither a broken home in childhood nor an upbringing by a schizophrenic parent resulted in any important association with schizophrenia. However, a disturbed relationship with relatives and loved persons was more frequent in the anamnesis of schizophrenic women than of schizophrenic men. Most schizophrenics who had been schizoid before their psychosis had lived in miserable familial conditions.

The authors have examined the drug-taking histories of 46 schizophrenics and 46 matched controls. They have found that the schizophrenics on average used a wider variety of drugs, in greater amounts. Schizophrenics who had used drugs experienced the onset of symptoms on average four years earlier than non-users and were also admitted to hospital four years earlier, on average. Those schizophrenics who had used drugs had had better premorbid personalities than the non drug-users. These results are indicative of some precipitating role of drug abuse in the onset of schizophrenia.

Abnormally high levels of various amino acids were maintained in the bloodstream of rats, causing saturation of amino acid transport into the brain and partial exclusion from the brain of other amino acids which are necessary for protein synthesis. Excluded amino acids could be made to enter the brain by raising their concentration in the bloodstream. The possible relevance of these findings to improvements in the dietary treatment of some inborn errors of metabolism is discussed.

In the waking dog, a small dose of morphine (0·1 mg/kg intravenously) was sufficient (1) to induce a quite appreciable state of sedation which might be more closely related to clinical analgesia than experimental nociception, and (2) to allow for precipitation of clear-cut signs of abstinence (agitation, tachycardia, tachypnoea, mydriasis, hyperthermia, tremors, salivation, urination) when naloxone (3 mg/kg subcutaneously) was injected 1·5 hours later.

This report is concerned with a simple statistical model of the way the brain may function, suggested by the analysis of intelligence test results in two groups of children. The model describes the statistical behaviour of an ideal array of elements, representing the brain, during tests of cognitive ability. Predictions from the model indicate that comparison of the EEC recording taken from groups of children who were good or poor readers would show amplitude differences. These were found between the groups when the eyes were open but not when the eyes were closed–a result explained by the model.

Jellinek's proposed phases in the development of alcohol dependence covered a wide diversity of areas. Trice and Wahl and others have rejected these detailed proposals on the grounds that not all alcoholics experience all symptoms and those that do experience them do not necessarily experience them in the same order. Data from 59 halfway house residents confirmed these two points. However, a small number of clusters of items were isolated which were reported to occur in characteristic sequence. These were: firstly, the onset of psychological dependence; secondly, tremor, morning drinking, and amnesia; and, thirdly, aspects of alcoholic psychosis. The conclusion is that there is a characteristic ordering of new events and symptoms suggestive of a developmental process in alcoholism, but this ordering is apparent only if attention is confined to a limited part of the broad spectrum of events and symptoms associated with alcoholism. This process is obscured by a consideration of the social concomitants of alcohol dependence.

Recent work on the central mechanisms of food intake is reviewed in relation to anorexia nervosa. On the basis of the present review a number of conclusions are drawn as possible avenues for future research. A proposal is outlined for the investigation of L-dopa as a potential treatment for anorexia nervosa.

Eleven patients with anorexia and 11 matched controls were given questionnaires on hunger and satiety before and after a standard meal in order to evaluate the way in which patients with anorexia nervosa consciously recognize and describe their sensations of hunger and satiety. The findings showed that the patients perceived hunger in a manner similar to the controls, but they were more preoccupied with thoughts of food, had a stronger urge to eat, and were more anxious when hungry. The patients, unlike the controls, frequently did not describe satiety in terms of gastric fullness. The disordered perception of satiety, however, was not related to clinical outcome. These findings are discussed in terms of their implications for treating anorexia nervosa.

This investigation was concerned with the description, treatment, and follow-up of a group of patients selected by age (18–55 years), diagnosis (psychotic), and the presence of work problems (unemployed for more than 12 months). The patients were of below average intelligence, and substantial numbers were characterized by low drive to return to work, unrealistic attitudes, a lack of self-confidence, and adverse attitudes towards the existence and extent of handicap. An evaluative and experimental study subsequently indicated that a rehabilitation programme was unsuccessful in changing attitudes and returning patients to industrial roles in the community. Aspects of outcome such as work status were predicted by earlier assessments of motivation, self-confidence, and patients' view of the presence and extent of handicap; outcome was not predicted by the initial assessments of work level, length of unemployment, intellectual level, and the realism of attitudes.

A structured interview was developed to assess the drive, realism, self-confidence, and self-rated disablement of psychiatric patients in relation to work. The clinical and research value of the interview was demonstrated by (1) studies of rater consistency, temporal stability, and parallel form reliability, and (2) by an investigation of its predictive validity.

Plasma tryptophan concentrations were determined in serial blood samples from a short cycle (two to three day) manic-depressive patient and four manic-depressive patients with longer (60 day) affective cycles. Tryptophan levels varied significantly with affective state in the short cycle patient and one of the longer cycle patients. Correlation in the short cycle patient was better with blood samples taken at 3 p.m. than at 9 a.m.

Plasma amitriptyline and nortriptyline concentrations were measured in a group of five adult subjects who each received two different dosage regimes of amitriptyline (Tryptizol) for 14 day periods—namely, 25 mg three times daily and 75 mg once nightly. Mean steady-state plasma concentrations during the two dosage regimes were in close accord. The daily variation in drugplasma concentrations were only minimal during the thrice daily dosage regime but during the once nightly dosage regime there was an average decline in total drug plasma concentrations (amitriptyline plus nortriptyline) of about 30%. It was concluded that antidepressant medication with amitriptyline using a single nightly dose schedule might be more reliably taken by patients without there being any significant reduction in therapeutic efficacy.