Background. Olfactory identification ability has been associated with processing in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), an area that has been implicated in the pathophysiology of obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD). Although olfactory sensitivity is normal in patients with OCD, no study has investigated olfactory identification in this disorder.

Methods. A group of 20 subjects with OCD and 23 age- and education-matched controls performed a standardized test of olfactory identification. They also performed computerized tests of spatial memory span, spatial working memory and spatial recognition memory that have been shown previously to be sensitive to cognitive deficits in patients with OCD.

Results. Performance on the olfactory identification task, spatial recognition task and spatial span task was significantly worse in the OCD group than controls.

Conclusions. While impairment in spatial cognition is consistent with previous studies of OCD, its significance for brain-behaviour models of OCD is unclear. However, the finding of abnormal olfactory identification in patients with OCD is consistent with the hypothesis that there is a disruption to processing at the level of the OFC in the disorder.

Background. The aim of the study was to confirm the predictive relationship between socio-economic factors and psychiatric admissions at a fine grain geographical level. The strength of association was compared with those of other studies that have looked at separate diagnostic groups.

Method. Psychiatric admissions were from electoral wards of the County of South Glamorgan, which encompasses the capital city of Wales, Cardiff. Standardized psychiatric admission ratios (SAR) for different diagnostic groups were calculated for a 5-year period. The ecological association with deprivation indices and with single variables at the level of electoral ward was examined. Of a total of 15266 psychiatric admissions, 11296 were analysed.

Results. Psychiatric morbidity, reflected in SAR was inversely related to socio-economic deprivation for both sexes. This applied to all diagnostic groups except organic disorders. The relationship was most marked for schizophrenia, delusional disorders and substance abuse, closely followed by personality disorders, and less for affective and neurotic disorders. Little difference existed between three composite indices of deprivation (Carstairs, Jarman, Townsend), but the marginally best predictor was that designed by Jarman. However, low rates of car ownership and high unemployment were as good at predicting SAR as any of the compound indices.

Conclusion. Socio-economic factors account for almost 50% of the variance in psychiatric admission rates between electoral wards. The degree of association between psychiatric morbidity and deprivation varies between diagnostic groups, arguing against a common factor linking deprivation and psychiatric admissions generally. Frequently updated unemployment figures provide nearly as useful and more immediate information than 10-yearly Census data used to calculate the deprivation indices. These figures may be used for needs assessment and targeting resources at a local level.

Background. Although the ‘high interpersonal sensitivity’ type of personality has repeatedly been shown to be related to depression by case–control studies, no studies have confirmed whether this association also exists in a non-clinical sample.

Methods. Scores on the Interpersonal Sensitivity Measure (IPSM) were compared between employed Japanese adults with and without a lifetime diagnosis of major depressive disorder. The diagnosis was provided by the Inventory to Diagnose Depression, Lifetime version. A multiple logistic regression analysis estimated the odds ratios for having a lifetime diagnosis of depression.

Results. The scores on the IPSM were higher in the subjects with a lifetime history of depression than those without a lifetime history of depression. On the five subscales of the IPSM, the subjects with a lifetime history of depression showed higher scores on ‘interpersonal awareness’, ‘need for approval’, and ‘separation anxiety’ than those without a lifetime history of depression. The multiple logistic regression analysis showed that the subjects with the high interpersonal sensitivity type of personality had an increased risk for experiencing lifetime depression.

Conclusions. The results suggest that high interpersonal sensitivity is a risk factor for depression even in a non-clinical sample from non-Western culture.

Background. The human serotonin transporter gene (5-HTT) is a strong candidate for involvement in the pathogenesis of mood disorders. Two common polymorphisms have been identified in the gene: a VNTR in intron 2 and a functional deletion/insertion in the promoter region. In previous studies we proposed that allele 12 of the VNTR might increase susceptibility for bipolar disorder.

Methods. We have genotyped 122 parent–offspring trios of British Caucasian origin where the proband had DSM-IV Bipolar I disorder (BPI). The results were analysed with the transmission/disequilibrium test (TDT), which examines whether particular alleles are preferentially transmitted from heterozygous parents to affected offspring.

Results. The 12 repeat in the VNTR in intron 2 was transmitted 72 times and not transmitted 56 times (χ2 = 2·0, 1 df, P=0·16). If we exclude 24 families in which the proband was a case in our published case–control studies (Collier et al. 1996a; Rees et al. 1997), the excess transmission of allele 12 reaches conventional levels of statistical significance: χ2 = 3·85, 1 df, P<0·05. The deletion/insertion polymorphism in the promoter region was not associated with BPI: 66 parents transmitted the inserted (L) allele and 59 parents transmitted the deleted (S) allele (χ2 = 0·39, 1 df, P=0·53).

Conclusions. The 12 repeat of the VNTR in intron 2 of the serotonin transporter gene might be a susceptibility factor in bipolar affective disorder. The genetic effect, if true, is likely to be small, and requires confirmation in further studies using parental controls.