One thousand five hundred and seventy eight first degree relatives of schizophrenics, manics, depressives and controls were personally interviewed using the Iowa Structured Psychiatric Interview Form without knowledge of the probands' diagnoses. Our data, based on blind diagnostic assessment of the relatives, support the distinction between schizophrenia and affective disorders, although the distinction between schizophrenia and mania was not clear-cut. Our data could not support familial subtyping of paranoid and non-paranoid schizophrenia, and unipolar and bipolar affective disorders. Future studies attempting to develop research criteria for subtyping schizophrenia and affective disorders should utilize not only clinical and familial data but also biological markers and other non-familial variables.

Slater's model of assessing distribution patterns of ancestral secondary cases in family trees was applied to pedigree data on schizophrenia. Eighteen schizophrenic probands with at least two ill second-degree relatives were available for study. The distribution of unilateral to bilateral pairs of affected relatives did not deviate significantly from that expected in polygenic inheritance. Contrasting pedigrees with family history of chronic schizophrenia with pedigrees loaded with ‘soft spectrum’ disorders, i.e., borderline schizophrenia, did not alter the consistency of the data with polygenic transmission.

In a double-blind trial, 34 male chronic schizophrenic day-patients or in-patients in a hostel ward continued on fluphenazine decanoate given mostly once fortnightly or were switched to pimozide, given on four days each week. Over nine months relapse rates were similar for both groups, and while fewer patients on pimozide were prescribed antiparkinsonian drugs one quarter developed buccolingual-masticatory dyskinesia. Plasma pimozide levels suggested satisfactory drug compliance. Average plasma prolactin levels were within the normal range for untreated men in one quarter of non-relapsing patients on pimozide and three quarters on fluphenazine.

Chronic schizophrenic patients were maintained for six months on a dosage of haloperidol adjusted to give optimum clinical effect. A correlation was found between extrapyramidal symptoms and prolactin levels and also between plasma haloperidol concentration and plasma prolactin levels. Estimation of plasma prolactin would be a reliable measurement of patients' compliance with medication.

In a double-blind comparative trial of sulpiride (600–1,800 mg/day) and trifluoperazine (15–45 mg/day) in 38 chronic schizophrenic patients, ratings of therapeutic results and unwanted effects were made at two-weekly interviews during the six weeks treatment period. The results show that sulpiride has neuroleptic properties and a spectrum of therapeutic activity similar to that of trifluoperazine. There was an association between plasma sulpiride levels and therapeutic response after four weeks' treatment.

Ten patients, 5 male and 5 female, with bipolar psychosis beginning before the age of 16 years, mean 14.1 years, are described. Difficulties in diagnosis in this age group are discussed and background factors of possible aetiological importance analysed. Lithium therapy was effective in 6 out of 7 patients.

A study was carried out to compare the sensitivity as well as cost of three different methods of psychiatric case detection. It was found that the simplest method, which involved interviewing about 3 per cent of the adult population, with a questionnaire taking only five minutes to complete, picked up as many adult epileptics and nearly as many psychotics as the inquiry with all the adults in the population using a sophisticated structured interview schedule. A method of medium complexity, in which the short five-minute questionnaire was given to one adult member of each family, detected in addition to all adult epileptics and psychotics, and many juvenile epileptics and mentally retarded.

The cost of the simplest method was one-ninth and that of the method of medium complexity, one-fifth of the cost of the most sophisticated method.

The method of medium complexity is recommended for use in the rural psychiatry programme of the developing countries.

A survey was made of demographic and social characteristics of patients referred to a Student Health psychiatrist over a two year period. These patients were compared with a group attending Student Health physicians. Significantly over-represented in the psychiatric group were: medical and dental students; students who had repeated an academic year; students over 30 years of age; Roman Catholic students; and students who were totally financially dependent on their parents. Findings by others suggesting that first-year and female students would be over-represented in the psychiatric group were not borne out.

The revised Kendrick battery was used to assess level of cognitive functioning and subsequent cognitive change in a group of 40 long-stay elderly psychiatric patients. If it had been used for diagnosing organic dementia in this group, half would have been classified as dementing, although the clinical evidence was against such a diagnosis. It may therefore misclassify individuals who are functioning at a low cognitive level for other reasons. Alternative assessment procedures are now available for use with the elderly.

Validity and reliability studies of a method of assessment of the elderly mentally ill by nurses are presented. The method has the advantages of being brief, meaningful and structured into three areas which provide useful distinctions for nursing: Orientation, Behaviour, and Physical Capacity. Applications of the scales are discussed.

Direct observations were made of patients' behaviour during occupational therapy sessions in a psychogeriatric ward, and were used to suggest changes in the conduct of these sessions, and to evaluate the effectiveness of the changes. The intervention was successful in bringing about situation-specific increases in clients' appropriate behaviour.

The hypothesis that ego states, as defined in Transactional Analysis, are distinct and identifiable phenomena was tested. Ten TA therapists were asked to assess which of the three ego states, Parent, Adult or Child, were present in forty statements extracted from the tape of a family therapy session. The level of agreement reached was statistically highly significant. There was a certain amount of inter-rater variability, and potential sources of disagreement are discussed.

This paper describes two women. The first was admitted to hospital having suddenly, and without adequate reason, developed the idea that a senior married colleague at her workplace had fallen deeply in love with her. The second woman is her mother, who had been admitted to the same hospital twenty-two years earlier with a well systematized delusion that her husband was unfaithful. Both syndromes have been described by de Clérambault as two of the three forms of psychose passionnelle. The present report is intended to clarify the concepts of psychose passionnelle and demonstrate the similarities between jealousy and erotomania. We believe these case histories describe the first reported instance of psychose passionnelle in successive generations of one family.