Memory impairment is not usually considered to form part of the clinical picture of schizophrenia, except perhaps in severely deteriorated patients. In a survey of 60 patients encompassing all grades of severity and chronicity poor memory performance was found to be common, sometimes substantial, and disproportionately pronounced compared to the degree of general intellectual impairment. Although associated with severity and chronicity of illness, impaired memory was by no means confined to old, institutionalized, or markedly deteriorated patients. The pattern of deficit appeared to resemble that of the classic amnesic syndrome rather than that seen in Alzheimer-type dementia.

The use of logistic regression to estimate the prevalence of psychiatric morbidity in community samples is illustrated here with data from a study of post-natal depression in 702 primiparous Cambridge mothers. The method is also used to validate the primary screening instrument (in this case the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale – EPDS), and to estimate the effects of cofactors, such as maternal age, previous psychiatric history and social class.

A structured assessment instrument, the Quality of Life Interview, was used to explain the quality of life of seventy patients with chronic psychiatric illness attending a day treatment programme. The interview was found to have acceptable psychometric properties. Factors that best predicted the quality of life of these patients included the number of re-admissions in the last year, frequency of family contacts, satisfaction with social life, psychiatric health and adult education. The theoretical implications and potential clinical benefits of these findings for chronic psychiatric patients are discussed.

Eating Attitudes Test (EAT) scores of forty female college students were compared to their electrodermal activity (EDA) responses when offered a plate of chocolate chip cookies. A significant positive correlation was detected between the EAT scores and the skin conductivity measures associated with the presentation of food. Women with the highest EAT scores also exhibited the greatest sympathetic nervous system responses to a plate of cookies. This finding supports the conclusion that the EAT is capable of identifying individuals who are preoccupied with food or anxious about eating.

The 28-item GHQ was administered to 282 Punjabi and white British patients visiting two Health Centres in Bedford. We discovered that ethnicity is not significantly correlated with GHQ ‘caseness’, but that differences exist in somatic and depressive symptomatology. The discussion relates these findings to debates about the psychiatric morbidity of Asian immigrants and somatization.

In a sample of 60 remitted depressed in-patients, the power of three basic parameters of the social support network – Kin Support Network Size; Non-kin Support Network Size; and Satisfaction with Support – to predict depressive symptom levels seven months after discharge was examined. The results suggest that even positive, supportive family relationships can have a distinctly detrimental effect, and that a depressed in-patient's return to his or her family represents a crucial period for the further course of the disorder. The findings are discussed with respect to the social support literature and the ‘Expressed Emotion’ concept. It is held that neither paradigm provides an adequate explanation, and alternative mediating mechanisms are suggested.

We have tested the assumption that mental health surveys do not cause distress. At the end of a two-wave community survey of psychiatric symptoms and personality factors, respondents were asked specific questions about how the interviews affected them. Being interviewed was distressing for some individuals, but it was seen as beneficial by a larger number. Those reporting distress were more likely to have had neurotic symptoms prior to both interviews and to have personality characteristics which would indicate proneness to distress. Whether the distress lasted beyond the interview situation is unknown. These results suggest that surveys of mental health should tell intended respondents about the possible effects of the interview, both positive and negative. Some studies should try to estimate the duration of any distress reported to have been induced.

The Standardized Assessment of Personality (SAP) involves a short semi-structured interview with an informant. It was modified to accord with the 1987 draft of the tenth revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) and used to assess the pre-morbid personality of first-admission patients in one London area over the period of one year. Of the 120 (84% of the total sample of first-admissions) patients included, 43 (36%) were found to satisfy the ICD-10 criteria for personality disorder and a further 17 (14%) to satisfy the criteria for personality trait accentuation.