Patients recently recovered from schizophrenic or manic-depressive psychoses showed larger ear difference scores than normal controls on a dichotic listening test, i.e. when asked to identify dissimilar words fed synchronously to the two ears. The possible significance of the finding is discussed, in relation both to hemispheric organization and to other aspects of cognitive activity which may underlie performance on the task.

The serum and CSF of 66 patients with functional psychoses were tested for immunoglobulins and antibodies to measles, HSV-1, CMV, and rubella viruses. Ten surgical and 80 neurological patients were controls. There were no significant findings in the serum, consistent with most previous studies. In the CSF 6 of 17 multiple admission schizophrenic patients had definite elevations of IgG or measles antibody and differed significantly from the surgical controls. Immunologically this group resembled the seriously ill neurological patients. No previous study has been made of immunoglobulins or viral antibodies in the CSF of psychiatric patients. It is concluded that further work is warranted in a search for biological subgroups of schizophrenia.

The progress over one year of 25 children aged 2½ to 3½ years attending a psychiatric day centre was compared with that of 25 similarly disturbed 3-year-old children identified in a total population study. There were few differences in outcome, and those that were found did not particularly favour either group. Implications for the organization of treatment services are discussed in terms of the need to lay down clear objectives and to pursue systematic controlled evaluation.

This paper describes a supported lodgings scheme as an alternative to group homes. It is pointed out that the County Council has a statutory duty to finance supported lodgings and that schizophrenics are ideally suited to such a scheme. Some short-stay, the majority of the ‘new’ non-demented long-stay, and a large number of the ‘old’ long-stay patients have been discharged by this means. Aftercare facilities were important, as nearly half attended the day centre and over one third were regularly visited in their lodgings by the community psychiatric nurses and social workers.

An extensive psychometric test battery was administered to 125 children with a reading disability, to their parents and siblings, and to members of 125 matched control families (N = 1,044). In addition to expected differences in spelling and reading, probands obtained significantly (P ≤ · 01) lower scores than controls on tests of other cognitive abilities. Manifold deficits were also found in siblings and parents of probands, conclusively demonstrating the familial (genetic and/or common-family environmental) nature of the disorder.

Using a classical click/flash paradigm, the CNV was recorded from the following three groups of subjects at Broadmoor Hospital: (1) 14 ‘psychopathic’ patients selected by use of the 4/9 MMPI profile and confirmed by independent clinical diagnosis; (2) 15 ‘non psychopathic’ patients, all psychotic and mainly schizophrenic; (3) 14 healthy staff control subjects. All three groups were matched for age and sex; the two patients groups were also matched for length of stay. Two series of 32 paired stimuli were used, separated by an interval of 30 minutes. The mean CNV voltage was significantly lower in the ‘non-psychopathic’ patients. The amplitude of the ‘psychopath's' CNV response did not differ significantly from that of the staff controls, but the response variability between the first and second series of trials was much greater in the ‘psychopathic’ patients than in the other two subject groups. The ‘psychopathic’ subjects tended to show more rapid initial development of the CNV.

The number of microvolt seconds of alpha rhythm emitted during a five-minute period were collected for 30 male and 30 female subjects. This measure of alpha abundance was then compared in subjects who scored high and in those who scored low on the E and N scales of the Eysenck Personality Inventory. Subjects who scored low on the E scale tended to have a significantly greater number of microvolt seconds of alpha than did subjects who scored high on the scale. No differentiation on the basis of emitted alpha was possible for subjects scoring high and low on the N scale.

The Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale (ZSDS) correlated well (0·69) with the treating physician's global rating in 26 depressed out-patients during the six weeks of treatment with a tricyclic antidepressant. In a larger sample of 41 patients, a high correlation was found between the ZSDS and the Hamilton Rating Scale. The sensitivity of the ZSDS was found to be adequate. The scale was able to differentiate, at the 0·05 level, four severity groups classified on the basis of the global rating. The importance of the direct relationship between the range of severity studied and the value of the correlation coefficient was discussed. Previous investigations and the results of this study indicate that the ZSDS is a valid and sensitive measure of clinical severity in depressed patients and support its continued use as a research instrument.

Glucose utilization, serum insulin, human growth hormone, and free fatty acids were studied in 18 unipolar depressed patients and 14 normal controls, using the intravenous glucose tolerance test. Patients were kept drug-free for at least two weeks before testing, and physical activity and diet were carefully controlled. Previously described abnormalities in the balance between glucose and free fatty adds were not seen, but endogenous depression was associated with lowered glucose utilization rate with insulin resistance. Changes in kinetics of membrane transport in endogenous depression which could account for this finding are discussed.

Concentrations of plasma amino acids in nine patients with Huntington's chorea and nine control patients were studied while diet and drug therapy were controlled. Significantly low values for threonine, alanine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine and histidine were found in the Huntington's chorea patients. However, since different investigators have failed to establish a consistent pattern of abnormality, it is considered that the findings are probably due to non-specific factors.

This paper deals with the early results and problems of establishing and developing a regional training programme in psychotherapy, using peripatetic senior lecturers. The difficulties of a psychoanalytic approach to psychotherapy in mental hospitals are discussed, and a model of psychotherapy more suitable for general application in mental hospitals and district general hospital psychiatric units is proposed.

A variant of the Capgras syndrome is described in a 43-year-old woman who had vitiligo and multinodular goitre. The unusual feature of the case was that the patient not only misidentified members of her own family but also claimed that she herself had been replaced by a double.